Dear friends,

Hope you are doing well. Today, I was thinking about the messages that have been preached at church, all around the issue of giving and receiving. They have basically been emphasising the reason why we need to give and how we sometimes receive things we have not worked for. As I going to the bathroom this morning, a flash just came to mind…Anything that has life in it has to receive something into themselves and also give something out. If for some reason, a part of that process stops (the giving or the receiving part), that living being dies in no time. This is rather yucky, but think about this… Imagine if we never went to the bathroom to relieve ourselves, we’ll die!!! A lot of people are in the hospital because they can not relieve themselves. Or imagine it the other way… What if we could not take stuff in like food or water or air, we’ll also die!!!

Also, whatever we take in, we get from nature, and nature needs whatever we throw out to survive. Its all a circle of survival. Everything in this world that has life has to receive and give in order to survive. You can generate other examples of this fact in your own time… I believe that’s another reason why it is so important to give. I mean there are loads of practical examples where you help one broken man today and the same broken man gets up and saves your whole family or saves another family, country, neighbourhood, etc. We never know where our good seeds will eventually be harvested but one thing I am sure of is that it eventually does harvest.

Same principle applies to receiving. Do not be “shy” or “weary” to receive things. I have come across people who only want to give and give but refuse to receive gifts from others. I sometimes think they have come to accept that they are self-sufficient – they don’t need anything from anybody. That is also not healthy. First of all, you are depriving the giver of their blessing and the need to purge themselves, thereby “killing” them and then we have also deprived ourselves of life and thereby “killing” ourselves.

Also, the act of receiving humbles a person. If you’re always giving and never receiving in your life, pride tends to come in, you could even get angry sometimes. You start feeling bigger than you really are. The bible says in Proverbs 16: 18, “Pride goes before destruction…” But when you learn to receive, the knowledge that you did not acquire all that you have by your own doing humbles you. Even our salvation was freely given to us. Imagine what would happen to us if we told God “Am fine thank you. I don’t need your blessings or salvation. Av got a pretty good job/business, wife and family etc”. Rather bless Joe Soap… We would be so so miserable. We have to receive from God in order for us to really appreciate the beauty of our relationship with Him. We also have to give back to Him in order for Him to know that we are still interested in being in relationship with Him. The same principle applies to us humans in this world! If you’re not sure if you want the thing being given or the motive behind it, collect it, pray on it and for the giver and give it on to someone who will need it.

So here are my final words…

“Give freely to save yourself, receive freely from others to save them”.

Matt 10:8: Give as freely as you have received!

Please feel free to comment. Love y’all.