OPPORTUNITIES TO SERVE

OPPORTUNITIES TO SERVE

II Cor. 9:10 For God is the one who gives seed to the farmer and then bread to eat. In the same way, he will give you many opportunities to do good, and he will produce a great harvest of generosity in you.  NLT

      The Lord gives us the knowledge, desire, opportunity, and tools to do things and expects us to use them. But, when we do, the results still fall back on the Lord and not us. We can't achieve anything in life without the Lord's permission or blessings. He controls the outcome of our labors. Now, why God enables some to achieve much and others little, only He knows. It is not for us to question God; it is for us to thank Him for what we do achieve.

      The Lord gives us many opportunities to do good. If we seize those opportunities with humility and gratitude, the Lord will produce a great harvest through us. It is never okay to gloat over our opportunities or think highly of ourselves because we have been given them. We are to serve the Lord out of our love for Him. It is then that He blesses us with a great harvest. We often will not see the harvest as it comes in, but that's okay. We serve the Lord for His sake and not our own. It is never about us. The sooner we accept it, the better our lives will be.

      And, we need to understand this about the harvest. We don't value the harvest we reap in the same way the Lord does. The Lord takes into account the heart and its motives. He values our obedience to what He has equipped and called us to do. The size of the harvest has nothing to do with its value in His eyes. Our role is to obey with a joyful and thankful heart and not concern ourselves with the results. We are blessed according to our faithful obedience and not our fruitfulness.