I want to encourage you today to keep going and not give up. Whatever struggle you may be facing in your life, trust your life in God’s hands and believe in his son Jesus. Believe God is in control, and he can reach you right where you are at, believe that he wants a wonderful future for you and he will protect and guide you when you put your life and your hope in him.
Circumstances do not define who you are and are not an indicator of your value. People’s opinions don’t define you either. Instead of these thoughts, only allow what God your creator says about you to define you. His written word, the bible, says you are fearfully and wonderfully made. He says he has a hope and a future for you and he will direct your path when you seek his counsel. He will answer you when you call on him, and he will show you many things that you did not know.
We are stewards of what we have been given. We need to be good stewards of these gifts no matter what the circumstance looks like. Some people have been given more, and some less. But no matter how much we have been given, we can be the best stewards of it today. Because when we care for what we have, even if it is very little, we multiply the blessings it produces.
Perhaps all we have in our ability today is to choose to have joy. That is HUGE! By choosing joy, you will see it multiply for yourself and it will multiply in the lives of those around you. This simple choice can bring huge blessings into your life and give you a lot of hope beyond measure even in the toughest situations. Being joyful is contagious and it can change the way we feel and the way others feel who come in contact with us.
Even if the only thing we have control over is the body we live in, we can choose to be the best steward of that body as we can be, and we will reap a blessing. We are given one body to live in. We each have different gifts and talents, but we are similar to each other in that we have a body, and it is fragile at the same time it is strong. We can learn to be good stewards of this body and multiply the blessings in our health and our emotions.
How can you be a good steward of your physical body? We can learn how to nourish it, rest it, challenge it, strengthen it, and care for it. We can be good stewards of our body, multiply the blessings, and overcome limitations, illness, neglect, and injuries, and be the best we can be.
Perhaps all that we have today is a loaf of bread, then we can share it and see the blessing multiply in another person’s life too.
Hope, Faith, and Blessings
There is a story in the bible about a widow who only had a little flour and oil left to make one meal of bread for herself and her sons. There had been a long drought and everyone was out of grain and out of money and she knew that their life was over and there was no hope of any food even in the near future because there was no rain to plant and grow any future crops and no money to buy food even if anyone had some to share.
So in desperation she planned her last meal. But in the midst of her despair, God heard her and sent a messenger, a prophet of God. He told her to go ahead and “make the last meal”, but to give some of it to him. Do what? This was all she had, and her family was about to die, so how could she give this away? But letting go, and placing her trust in God and his plan for a better future for her, she obeyed the instructions.
1 Kings 14 : 7-16
“Some time later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. Then the word of the Lord came to him: “Go at once to Zarephath in the region of Sidon and stay there. I have directed a widow there to supply you with food.” So he went to Zarephath. When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and asked, “Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?” As she was going to get it, he called, “And bring me, please, a piece of bread.” “As surely as the Lord your God lives,” she replied, “I don’t have any bread—only a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it—and die.” Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small loaf of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the land.’” She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family. For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the Lord spoken by Elijah.”
It is an incredible story of doing our best in the midst of terrible circumstances, sharing the best (even if all we have is very little) we have to bless another person and meet their need, and putting our trust and faith in God to work out the outcome, in return, we will reap a huge blessing!
Be encouraged today, that no matter what your situation may look like, by acting on your faith in God as your provider, healer, deliverer, multiplier, protector, and the source of life within you, he will reach into your situation and deliver you. He says his arm is not short! His arm is long enough to reach you right where you are. With the help of the Lord, you can and will overcome and reap a blessing that is more wonderful than you have imagined!
Be blessed!