The love of God is in us because God puts His love in our hearts when we accept Jesus as our Savior, but it needs to get through us in order for it to help anyone else. In Genesis 12:2, God told Abraham He would bless him and make him a person who dispensed blessings everywhere he went. When I read that story, I am reminded of a bottle of hand lotion I have, one that has a pump on it. When I press the pump, it dispenses hand lotion. That’s the way I want to be with blessings. When people come near me, I want to dispense something good, something that will benefit them. I want to encourage you to use what you have to meet needs for other people, and to have what I call “prosperity with a purpose.” Don’t pray to be prosperous so you can have more and more for yourself,
but make certain you use a good portion of what you have to bless others. I am not talking about only putting money into an offering at church on Sundays. I am talking about doing things for people in your daily life-people you work with, people in your family, people you like and people you may not particularly like, people you know and people you don’t know, and those you think deserve it as well as those you don’t think deserve it. This is an exciting way to live, as I have learned from personal experience.
I was out shopping one day and felt God wanted me to pay for another customer’s earrings. I didn’t know who the lady was; I had never seen her before; and I thought she might think I was a bit unusual because I wanted to buy the earrings for her. But the sense that I needed to pay for her earrings just wouldn’t go away. So I finally walked up to her with enough money in my hand to cover the earrings and said, “Listen, I’m a Christian and I just feel that God wants you to be blessed today. He wants you to know He loves you, so here’s the money to pay for your earrings.” I got away as quickly as I could because if she thought I was crazy, I didn’t want to know it! Months and months later, I heard that the lady actually was out shopping that day with someone who recognized me and watched me on television. That person had a neighbor, a man who tended to poke fun at me and did not speak nicely about me. The woman from the store told the man what had happened and it changed his attitude. That man who once made fun of me ended up watching our television broadcast regularly and receiving salvation!
You never know what God has in store when He puts something on your heart to do-even when it may not make sense to you or when it seems silly or embarrassing. If He asks you to do something, do it. I assure you, He always knows what He is doing, so even when you don’t understand, go ahead and obey. When I paid for the woman’s earrings during my shopping trip, I was blessed, the lady who got the earrings was blessed, the woman who witnessed it was blessed, God was honored, and the man who became a believer was blessed. I am thankful I was obedient in that situation. In many Scripture passages, the Bible teaches that when we obey God, we are blessed and when we don’t, we aren’t. It’s that simple. I do my best to obey God when I sense He wants me to do something to bless someone, but I have certainly “missed it” at times and removed myself from being able to receive a blessing. Let me explain. I was once in a large discount shoe store and the customer in front of me in line had several pairs of shoes she intended to purchase. I began to sense that God wanted me to pay for her shoes, but I thought she would think I was crazy, so I fiddled around long enough to keep from doing it and I didn’t say anything to her. When the clerk told her the total amount of her purchase, she didn’t have enough money to pay for her shoes. I felt so bad! Not only was I unwilling to be embarrassed in front of her, I was also ashamed before God because I disobeyed Him. Take my word for it, obedience is better than disobedience. I don’t always get it right, and you probably won’t either, but I am moving forward—and you can too. That’s what God wants from us.
I encourage you to develop a new mind-set, one that says, “I love people; I enjoy helping them and being generous.” Then purpose to spend some time each morning thinking about what you can do for someone else that day. Lie in your bed before you get up in the mornings and pray, “God, who can I bless today?” Don’t ask, “How can I be blessed today,” but “Who can I bless today?” In the evening take a “blessing inventory” by asking, “What did I do today to make someone else’s life better?” As I started learning to bless others, I found that I often made plans in the morning to bless people later that day, but then became busy and did not follow through. Taking the evening inventory really helped me because I did not want to have to answer, “Nothing, I did nothing to improve someone else’s life today.” Decide to use the blessings in your life to be a blessing to others everywhere you go. You can do this in big ways or in small ways, but just do it. You’ll be amazed at the results. Another way you can be a blessing is just by being friendly. Make a real effort to be friendly with people everywhere you go and show a genuine interest in them. Try to make shy people feel comfortable and confident. Try to make anyone that is handicapped in any way feel just as “normal” as anyone else. There are countless ways we can be a blessing if we think about it creatively.
Think about It
Who do you intend to bless this week and how will you do it?
