David Willis continues last week’s devotion.
“He has filled the hungry with good things…” (Luke 1:53a)
As we continue to recover from that tryptophan-induced, coma-like state that our Thanksgiving turkey visited upon us, let’s resume our conversation about giving. The whole of Thanksgiving is a time to pause and render thanks to God for the abundance with which we have been blessed. In our Scripture verse, Mary makes it clear that we serve a God Who fills those who hunger for Him. He is the source of our abundance.
In the midst of such blessing, it would seem rather foreign to pray for disturbance. But disturbance is precisely what Sir Francis Drake sought when he wrote these prayerful words many years ago, “Disturb us, Lord, when with the abundance of things we possess, we have lost our thirst for the waters of life; having fallen in love with life, we have ceased to dream of eternity; and in our efforts to build a new Earth, we have allowed our vision of the new heaven to dim.” Drake’s eloquent, but not so gentle, word seeks to remind us that one of the byproducts of abundance is apathy.
I urge you to pause and take inventory of what you “possess”, what you have “fallen in love” with, and what you have “sought to build”. Have these things created within your life apathy, or a sense of responsibility? Scripture teaches that, “If God has been generous with you, he will expect you to serve him well. But if he has been more than generous, he will expect you to serve him even better.” (Luke 12:48, CEV) We never serve our Lord better than when we serve, or give in His Name.
This Christmas, give according to your abundance.
Remember, “We give more when we give of ourselves.”