Pondering...

I came across two different thoughts from sermons recently and I wanted to get them down so I can ponder them.

First, God will give you what you give to others. If you are seeking his grace, offer grace to others. If you are seeking financial blessing, give financially to others.  If you seek help, give help.  Just as trees produce fruit of its own kind, blessings work the same way.  Don't give grace if you seek a financial blessing. Also don't say, I will give financially once I receive a financial blessing. And do not give simply to get in return.  However, expect blessing since you are God's beloved child.

I never thought of it this way but I heard it in a sermon on the way home from church last night. It makes sense but it seems like I would struggle with serving/giving to honor God versus serving/giving to receive a blessing.

And then on the way home tonight I heard James MacDonald talk about fasting. This is what he said: Fasting is taking the thing that controls you and putting it in its place.  Fasting breaks our enslavement to food (or any other things that we are a slave to). Anything that I HAVE to have is enslavement to me (dessert, coffee, facebook...) The absence of our fasting is the measure of our contentment with the absence of Christ.  (OUCH!) Fasting reveals the things that control us. Our human desires are like rivers that tend to overflow their banks. Fasting brings the river under control and forces it to flow within its proper boundaries.

I have never fasted really. I have tried fasting from food once but got dreadfully ill and ended up breaking my fast in tears for having "failed".  Since then I have tried partial fasts but was never very committed to them.  But to hear it said that my lack of fasting shows my contentment with my lack of Christ. Ouch!h. I realize that I have been way too passive in my faith.  I have settled for "just enough to get by" instead of seeking to be filled to overflowing. So, I will be rethinking my stance on fasting (or rather my lack thereof).