What has the Lord given? How have you used it? (Matthew 10:5-8)
About 14 years ago my husband, Chuck, and I were able to get a mortgage and buy the house we live in today. It was a fixer upper and we started work on it the day we closed on it. Shortly before we were finished and ready to move in we choose to have the house blessed. We asked Pastor Taylor to come over and preside over that. We also asked a few friends to come and be a part of it, be witness to this event. Several things were said and scriptures quoted but the thing that I remember most was when Chuck said, on behalf of both of us, "this house is a gift from God, it is His, may we always use it to glorify Him and have open doors to use it for his Kingdom." Little did either of us know how God would take those words and use them.
Our home is a small 4 bedroom Cape and we have 4 (biological) children. Yet this house would be called home as well as a place to rest from time to time for dozens of young people all with different stories, different needs, different levels of faith. We have always had an open door policy where people were welcome to come over for dinner, find an ear to listen, receive arms to comfort, hear words to encourage, be part of a family, to be still and hang out, for whatever the need was that they had our home was open. I don't even think I can recall how many young people as well as older have entered our small home and in doing so our lives over the past 14 years. Even strangers who knocked on the door have ended up sitting with us for dinner (I am 100% serious about this). Neighbors have been welcomed as friends and even friendship with the mailman, Bob is his name, has been made. This house was a blessing from the Lord and we have tried our best to use it as a blessing to others.
Matthew 10:8 says "Freely you have received, freely give." Christ was teaching his disciples to trust that He would provide. He was teaching them to not look at what they didn't have but at what they did have, what Christ had given them and then to use those things as a gift, a blessing to others. He was teaching them to not just preach the word of God but to live it out and to show it to others. He wanted to them to discover that God does indeed freely give and they in turn need to do likewise.
Christ wants us to learn these things too and the best way to learn them is to take time to see what God has freely and generously given to us. We are given spiritual gifts, material gifts, talents and abilities as well as passions for things. In what ways can we offer back to God what he has so graciously given in order for others to be blessed, in order for others to experience the Love God has for them? Do we trust Him enough to give freely?
I can tell you this, I never realized how giving our home to the Lord to use 14 years ago would not only bless so many but how in doing so we have been blessed with so much more in the process. It wasn't always easy and at times it took sacrifice but it was, it is, so worth it. I am challenged now to look at other areas of my life in which the Lord has given to me freely and to freely give these areas back to the Lord to use for His glory and His Kingdom.
The Lord has freely, undeservedly, generously given so much to each of us. May we have hearts of gratitude and use these things today and every day to Glorify God, to build His Kingdom, to bless others...you will only be blessed all the more in your heart if you do.
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