Grace For The Journey

  The Bible says in Proverbs 11:25, “And he who waters will also be watered.”  God has given His people many guarantees in Scripture.  I pray that this one today will both bless and strengthen you for the journey ahead.

The principle is crystal clear:

In God’s economy,

You cannot give

Without getting.

The sense of the word suggests the thought of “refreshing” others.  The general principle is, that in living for the good of others, we shall be profited also ourselves.  This teaching is sustained by the analogy of nature, for in nature there is a law . . .

That no one thing

Can be independent of

The rest of creation,

But there is a mutual action

And reaction of all upon all.

God has so constituted this universe,

That selfishness is

The greatest possible offense

Against His law,

And living for others,

And ministering to others,

Is the strictest obedience to His will.

Our surest road to our own happiness is to seek the good of our fellows.  We store up in God’s own bank what we generously expend on the behalf of others.

• To get we must give.
• To accumulate we must scatter.
• To make ourselves happy and become spiritually vigorous, we must do good, and seek the spiritual good of others.

Now, let me apply this principle, in its narrow sense, as belonging to ourselves personally.  There are some tasks in which we cannot all engage.  Each person has their own special work that God has given; but refreshing is work that every persons can do regardless of position or power.  Consider the following:

1. All people need and want watering.
2. The Lord’s people are to do this watering through the provision God has given. The Holy Spirit waters by the admonitions of parents, by the kind suggestions of friends, by the teaching of His ministers, by the example of all His saints.
3. Some plants need special watering, and should be the objects of unusual care, partly because of temperament or of ignorance, and partly because of circumstances or difficult situations.
4. All believers have some power to water others. In so watering others we shall be watered ourselves. This is the main point.

I also need to apply this principle, in a wider sense, as it may refer to us as a Church. We, as a Church, have enjoyed great blessing and prosperity; but we must always be conscious of the fact that God has done this so that we may use our blessings and prosperity to water others.  The Church has undertaken many ministries for Christ, and the Lord will use us to undertake a great many more.  We must keep our watering work up.

The principle, in the widest sense, as it refers to the entire Body of Christ is best explained by C. H. Spurgeon: “Our missionary operations are an infinite blessing to the Churches at home. Relinquishing them or giving them up would bring such a curse that we had need to go down on our knees and pray, God send the missionary work back again.’”

There is another significant truth to note is verse – The great promise is that . . . If we refresh others, we will be refreshed by God Himself.

When we give,

God knows

How to give

To us.

We can’t water others without being watered ourselves.

We are never

The loser for our

God-guided generosity.

Jesus told us that it is more blessed to give than to receive (Acts 20:35). In other words . . .

The more we look after

And serve others,

The more God

Will look after

And serve us.

The key is to keep our focus on God and not ourselves.

• When we lift others, God will lift us.
• When we comfort others, God will comfort us.
• When we bless others, God will bless us.

This is what I call “divine recompense.”  But we must do our part!  We must fulfill the condition of proactively refreshing others, knowing that God will fulfill His guarantee to refresh us.

No one ever lived a more “other-oriented” life than our Lord Jesus Christ.  He continually put others first.  He said plainly in Mark 10:45, “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”  It was Jesus who, on the night He was betrayed, took a towel and a basin and washed the feet of His disciples, setting the eternal example of how His followers are to live their lives all the way into glory.

By nature,

This is impossible

For you and me.

Sin has turned us inward.

Our first thought in the morning and our last thought at night is usually rooted in self.  Even as Christian believers, who have been saved by the Holy Spirit, given a new nature, and filled by the Holy Spirit, we must “surrender” (notice I did not say “fight with all our might” – they way to victory is surrender not self-determination) against sinful self-absorption and self-centeredness.  It’s not easy to put others first!  It isn’t easy to think of others more highly than we think of ourselves (Romans 12:3).

This is the call for every child of God,

And that call comes with

A wonderful guarantee from God Himself:

When we take time to water others,

our God will water the streams of our souls

To new levels of refreshment.

So . . . have you been refreshing others lately?  Remember . . .

The simple act of

refreshing (serving, blessing, etc.) others

is often the refreshment promised in and of itself.

Are you not blessed every time you bless someone else and see the light of joy and gratitude in their eyes?  You cannot give without getting; the more you give, the more you get.  Your supply of giving will never run out because God is filling it to overflowing (Psalm 23:5c). So, refresh others and prepare for refreshment from your Redeemer. God has guaranteed it!

This is God’s Word For Today … This Is Grace For The Journey

Rest and Rejoice in this eternal truth!

Pastor Terry

Ephesians 4:7 – “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.”

Hebrews 4:16 – “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”