#VictoryMonth Day 10: Wednesday, 11th January 2017

10 January 2017

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Day 10: Wednesday, 11th January 2017

FOCUS: GIVING, DIVINELY ORDAINED STEPS TO GREATNESS AND ABUNDANT BLESSINGS

Text: Philippians 4:14-19

INSIGHT FOR EFFECTIVE AND FERVENT PRAYERS

Today’s prayer topic is an extra-ordinary one. It is a popular, but less practiced subject; it is profit oriented but least experienced by many believers. Every human being is eager to receive from others, but few people are willing to give. If each of us analyze the number of people we visit, communicate with or call their phone numbers daily, we will discover that a very very high percentage are those from whom we intend to receive some forms of benefits or services, may be less than 10% are those to whom we intend to give something good.

Another good example are kids. Give a gift to a child and ask the child to give you back that thing given to him, more than 95% of children would decline. That is human nature for you. This stingy nature develops and grows with us as we advance in age. That is why there is suffering and poverty in the world. Wealth in the world is not going round, it is concentrated and hoarded by few people who have it. When we become believers, giving attitude is one thing that must be transformed in our lives. Unfortunately, it is not so, and this is to our greatest undoing. Giving is a divinely ordained means by which we can access God’s promised blessings. Many of us do not know this code, we are using wrong code when we pray and not give to access God’s blessings. Prayer is not the right code or key to access God’s blessing, it is giving.

Let us examine few self explanatory Bible passages:

“There is one that scattered, and yet increaseth, and there is one which withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty” (Prov. 11:24).
“But this I say, he which soweth sparingly shall also reap sparingly, and he which soweth bountifully shall also reap bountifully” (2Cor. 9:6). (The reaping mentioned here simply means giving).
“I have showed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, it is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 21:35).

These show us the peculiarity and essentiality of today’s topic. Make up your mind to become matured Christian today, apathy to giving is childish. Make up your mind to start giving bountifully from today, to be blessed of God, because failure to give leads to poverty, and that accounts for the poverty and lacking in the lives of many of us. When you begin to give, you align and identify yourself with God and the windows of the blessings of heaven would be thrown widely open to you.

“Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in my house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it” (Mal. 3:10).

God challenges you to try it, test it, experiment it and experience it! Use the right not the wrong key to open the door of His blessings. How many of us are going to test it, how many of us are going to experiment it, how many of us are going to experience it? I hope it will be you! Your story shall change, but let your attitude to giving change.

LET US PRAY

Thank You Lord for all You gave me. You gave me my life, my spirit, my soul, my body, different parts of my body, my mouth, my eyes, my ears, my hands, my legs, my brain and too many other parts to be mentioned.
Thank You, Lord, for giving me Your Son, Jesus Christ, who died on the cross to give me eternal life.
I repent of my sins of stinginess. How can I confess that Iam Your son/daughter and fail to be a bountiful giver like You, please forgive me.
Iam ready to identify and align with You in giving attitude and activity, pour the grace upon my life today, dear Lord.
Purge me totally of the stingy nature in my system, oh dear Father in Jesus name.
Help me to know and understand that everything that I have at every given time is owned by You and given to me by grace, oh Lord.
Help me to know and understand that I cannot become poor by giving, and I could become poor by not giving.
Help me to know Lord that I am made to be a benefactor, not beneficiary of good things of life.
Let giving become my nature and my identity, oh dear Father.
Help me and enable me to give something good to somebody, everyday of my life.
Make me a sponsor of the kingdom work and my church programme, oh dear Father.
Holy Spirit, begin to teach me what to give, when to give, whom to give according to divine design and desire for my life in Jesus name.
Use me dear Lord, for humanitarian services, to make positive impact upon the lives of very many people and to make the world a better place dear Father.
Help me to pay my tithes promptly, rightly and regularly in Jesus name.
Use me Lord to move the church forward at assembly, district, region and national levels through my giving, oh dear Lord.
Help me to make a mark in GOFAMINT through my giving and contributions.
Help me to touch the lives of so many people positively in my church and in my community in Jesus name.
Dear Father, I open my life for Your blessings, release it upon me that I may be a blessing to many people.