This morning I was reading My Utmost for His Highest, a favorite little book of mine, and was hit between the eyes with Chambers' writing. The scripture he references is from 2 Samuel 23:16. When in the midst of an intense battle, some of David's men brought him soothing water from the well he had earlier craved. These men risked their lives in a selfless act of of devotion to their leader, retrieving the water from the Well of Bethlehem. They proudly presented their gift to David and he quickly refused to drink it and poured it out as an offering to God. I've always been bothered by this story.
My spiritual gift is giving and I can imagine myself in the shoes of these men. How hurt I would feel if after great risk to myself, someone just wastefully dumped or tossed away my gift to them! I realize, however, that my gift is worthless if once I hand it over I attach strings to it. I must release it to that person to do with as God calls them. I am not to judge or condemn the receiver for their obedience.
Chambers has this to say about the receiver of such gifts.... "If you try to satisfy yourself with a blessing from God, it will corrupt you. You must sacrifice it, pouring it out to God--something that your common sense says is an absurd waste...If you have become bitter and sour, it is because when God gave you a blessing you hoarded it. Yet if you had poured it out to Him, you would have been the sweetest person on earth. If you are always keeping blessings to yourself and never learning to pour out anything to the Lord, other people will never have their vision of God expanded through you."
What a thought! May I never attempt to satisfy myself with a blessing from God or get in the way of another's sacrifice to God!
Labels: books, ponderings
posted by Kushmama @ 10:05 AM
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