For the past two and a half weeks, an eye infection left me with extreme light sensitivity that felt like the eye was being stabbed. It was enough to completely destroy the drive for spiritual Kingdom building.
With intense pain often comes intense prayer. And the truth after intense prayer, the pain began to subside and the next day I finally felt healing.
It is such a destructive feeling when you carry the weight to provide for the family and provide for people and organizations that depend on you, to lose the ability to give and provide in the same way.
But you come to the reality that there are seasons to give and seasons to receive.
In A Season To Receive:1. Pray
Hard times that push you to the brink of collapse have the enemy thinking it has won. But God gave us a powerful weapon in prayer that only demands faith. You don't need your back, legs, or eyes to pray. Even without the mind, scripture says that the Holy Spirit intercedes on our behalf when words fail to come to mind.
2. Receive
I know how it feels to lose independence, or to resist the feeling to burden others with your struggle. But according to scripture, we have a different reality that we should adopt and receive.
Galatians 6:2 ESV
Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
If someone wants to help you uphold the burdens then we should feel blessed.
1 John 3:17 ESV
But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him?
Nothing is worse than being in the church and not feeling part of the church. Assuming one has invested time in the church and that their need is made known, nothing is worse than feeling like no one cares.
James 2:14-17 NIV
14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? 15 Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
Only God and the individual self can truly judge the intention of the human heart. A prayer in good intention can move mountains but a prayer from legalism and a heartless habit while having exactly what the distressed individual needs is a faith in death.
Prayer and the question of, “what do you need?” must go hand in hand.
Sometimes being simply an ear to listen can save a life. Not every need has to be monetary or material.
It is human nature to have a limited scope of knowing who has prayed for you. But I guarantee most will remember who came to their home, the hospital, or a phone call to check in.
A Season To Give: Advice To The Caregivers:Hebrews 4:12 ESV
For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
The Word of God provides both internal discernment and outward discernment.
In context, 2 Thessalonians 3 is speaking to the church.
2 Thessalonians 3:10-15 ESV
For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies. Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their living. As for you, brothers, do not grow weary in doing good. If anyone does not obey what we say in this letter, take note of that person, and have nothing to do with him, that he may be ashamed. ...
There are those in the church who only wish to abuse the generosity of the church. When in reality it is their constant sin, abuse, greed, or misuse that keeps them in hard times. To make them ashamed is to provide a dose of hard love.
A Church shouldn't be
enabling a person's harmful behavior. Sure it is often out of a desire to help or protect them, but ultimately it is allowing the person to continue or worsen the condition they are in.
Knowing what to give is just as important as to how to give.
There is a reason that Jesus warned his disciples about casting out demons in unbelievers. Jesus warned they would only make the condition worse because the soul condition is the real problem. Otherwise, the demons would just return and bring more with them. (Matthew 12:43-45)
If we are going to help those in need, what we do must be equipped with the gospel of salvation. The Holy Spirit indwelling is the only way to defeat sin and to protect against evil.
Even God through the nation of Israel established a system to weed out welfare abuse.
Leviticus 23:22
New International Version
22 “‘When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and for the foreigner residing among you. I am the Lord your God.’”
Annually during the Festival of Weeks, God demanded that a portion of the harvest be left for the poor and the foreigner (those traveling through) so that they may work to ensure their survival for the coming year or journey ahead.
Conclusion:A season to give and a season to receive carry each their own blessings and each their own difficulties. Be not so afraid of the difficulties and miss out on the blessings. Be humble in the season of receiving and cheerful in the season of giving. For God not only loves the cheerful giver but He is also close to the brokenhearted. (2 Corinthians 9:7, Psalm 34:18)