Day 65 with David: The Lord blesses those who bless others.

“Blessed is he who considers the poor; The Lord will deliver him in time of trouble. The Lord will preserve him and keep him alive, And he will be blessed on the earth; You will not deliver him to the will of his enemies. The Lord will strengthen him on his bed of illness; You will sustain him on his sickbed.”

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭41:1-3‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Many years ago, when our sons were small, we often ran very close on our finances. At one point, we began to make ends meet by the use of credit cards; that proved to only put off the constant running short. And then you find yourself facing unmanageable debt.

I remember one Sunday, saying to the Lord that we really were in a tight place and we needed help. That Sunday at church one of the ladies gave me $200 saying the Lord has spoken to her to do that. This was not given as a result of my “poor mouthing.” I told the Lord my need and He spoke to a an open heart.

I know the stress of not having enough and I know the relief of someone “filling in the gap and making up the hedge.” Thanks be to God, I also know what it feels like to be able to help others who are in need.

I have a theory: I believe that grateful people are generous and look for ways to bless others. On the other hand, I believe that ungrateful people have somehow developed a sense of entitlement to what they don’t have. I have seen this attitude in people who are not poor, so to speak, but they fixate their mind on what they don’t have, making those around them miserable until they get it. That’s a sad, sad, state of being. If you look around you in the world, you will see that even our poor, sometimes live better than the majority of people in other countries. To be ungrateful for what you have is one of those things that the Lord frowns on.

“So Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?” And He said to him, “Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well.””

‭‭Luke‬ ‭17:17-19‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

People who are grateful for what God has done for them don’t look at what they don’t have; they’re grateful for what they do have. They also have a heart open to the needs of others.

Jesus, speaking about His judgment, made a very clear distinction between the generous, grateful, and merciful soul and the soul that is greedy, grasping, and unmerciful.

“And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’ Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.””

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭25:40, 45-46‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

It’s obvious that the Lord places a premium on those who freely give as they have been freely given.

In our portion from Psalms today we see David referencing those who are generous to people in need. He obviously puts himself in the category of those who “consider the poor.” He then presents his situation, for which he found no one willing to help him, asking the Lord to help him as he had helped others. Now, if that kind of reasoning seems odd, we do well to remember that our Lord—in teaching His disciples to pray—said to ask for forgiveness based on the way we forgive others. In fact, this reciprocity principle is found all through God‘s word. Put succinctly: do unto others as you would have them do unto you (Matthew 7:12).

Think of the parable Jesus told about the wicked servant—having been forgiven a great debt—turned around and started “squeezing” those who owed him; the end of that person was not good.

“Then his master, after he had called him, said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?’ And his master was angry, and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him.”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭18:32-34‬ ‭NKJV

I truly believe that the person who struggles with being generous needs to ask the Lord to forgive them. Somewhere along the line they have become ungrateful, and as such, have become unmerciful, and yes, unholy.

For today let us know and understand what David knew:‬‬

The Lord blesses those who bless others.

#100dayswithdavid