Blessings From Being Faithful

Who would think that not taking an active interest in growing your monetary and/or other wealth is the actual way to go.

“²⁰A faithful man will abound with blessings, but whoever hastens to be rich will not go unpunished.” — Proverbs 28:20 (ESV)

I am reminded this morning that I should not overly concern myself with gaining wealth of any kind. God will give His blessings to those that are faithful to Him. It is our faith that brings in the reward and blessings from God, not our selfish work.

“¹⁹Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows worthless pursuits will have plenty of poverty. ²²A stingy man hastens after wealth and does not know that poverty will come upon him.” — Proverbs 28:19 & 22 (ESV)

Often I have seen, and written about here, that we take God’s word and cherry pick verses that back up what we are looking to say, as if somehow God would justify our thoughts and actions. In order to really understand, I have to read and study before and after verses and get the whole picture and context of the one verse. I have to see the totality of the instance to get the bigger picture and not just zero in on the one verse.

When looking at verse 20 above, I see that faith abounds blessings from God. Where as this is a great verse, I get more context when looking before and after and drill into really how things work. I have to put in the work about the land and be generous with all to gain the blessings from God.

“¹⁷So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” — James 2:17 (ESV)

I must be faithful to receive blessings from God and along with my faith I must have works to complete it all. I cannot just sit idle and expect God to provide, I have to take action based on my faith and know that the two combined will gain blessing from God.

What are you doing to gain blessing from God? Are you sitting idle and expecting God to give you blessings? What if you combined your faith with you works knowing that God will give blessings?