The one who blesses others is abundantly blessed; those who help others are helped.
Proverbs 11:25 MSG
Last week I shared with us that it is alright for God’s children to still have expectations from God even as the year comes to an end; no matter how short the year may seem. And as I went through my week with expectations from God, I was reminded this week that the expectations that I or you have as diverse as it may be, most likely will be delivered to us through a man or woman.
Apostle Joshua Selman in a sermon said that, when God wants to bless a man, He sends a man. Although I have heard this a good number of times, I could not agree any less with this statement. In the moment I heard it, I did a quick run of events in my head through the bible and in my life to double check that I agreed with the statement. I do agree with it to a great extent. More so, I was reminded of things that I had shared here about how God needs man to operate here on earth. God has given us absolute dominion and authority over the earth territory and because God is a spirit, He needs us to surrender our lives to be used by Him and to be obedient to His instructions.
A great example from the bible is the event recorded in II Kings 7:1-19. There had been a famine in Samaria, then the word of the Lord went forth through the mouth of the prophet Elisha. The word of prophecy meant that there would be restoration in the land by the next day although it sounded so impossible. But it happened! God used four men with leprosy who were crazy enough to take a risk to leave their comfort zone to find food. Imagine if those men had found the abundance of food and kept it to themselves! The people of Samaria would have died of hunger but thank God that these lepers allowed themselves to be blessings to the Samaritans; they went back to share the good news. That simple act of sharing the information led to the turn around that Samaritans were expecting. Here we see that God first sent His word through His prophet who was a man, then went ahead to fulfill the prophecy through four lepers.
Another of the many ways God has used man to bless man is the story of Naaman. Naaman was a commander in the army of Kings of Aram. A man with so much influence and wealth had expectations of being healed from leprosy. He perhaps had sort for help from the best of places to no avail. Unknown to him that his wife’s maid had the answer to his problem.
In II Kings 5:3 the maid said to her mistress, “only if my my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.” And indeed, Naaman received his healing after following the directions of prophet Elisha. – II Kings 5:4-19. Again, God used the maid and the prophet to bring healing to the commander.
Imagine if the maid had been silent about the information she had about the prophet. Imagine if she had said to herself, that her boss’ problems were none of her business! Naaman would probably had missed out on his healing from God.
Queen Esther was also able to use her relationship with God coupled with her influence in the palace to deliver the Jews from destruction. – Esther 5:1-8. God used Queen Esther to save the Jews from impending destruction.
Ultimately, God saw the devastating state of the earth, knew that the creatures He had made needed saving from themselves, from the wickedness in the world and He sent a man – Jesus.
The list goes on through the pages of the bible and even through the pages of our lives. If we sat down to examine the ways God has blessed us, we’d be able to pin point the people God has used to bless us at different times.
With all that said, I am writing to remind you that you are blessed and can be a blessing to the people around you. No matter how minute you think your blessings are, someone somewhere is probably praying for the things that you have and take for granted.
So as the year comes to an end, and even in the coming years let us endeavor to help others and not always stay on the receiving end. The bible text for today says it all!
The one who blesses others is abundantly blessed; those who help others are helped. - Proverbs 11:25
Being a blessing to the next person can be as simple as listening to them as they share their challenges. It could also be as simple as holding the person’s hand to pray with them.
Being a blessing can also mean sharing the good news of Christ with the next person or sharing useful information. The Lord may also place in your heart burdens to proffer solutions to or distinctly lead you to be a blessing to someone or a group of people.
To wrap up:
let us make ourselves available to be used by God to bless someone this season.
And I trust God to honor His word in Proverbs 11:25 in our lives as we do so in Jesus name.