Matthew 6:31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
Matthew 6:33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
My husband, Eddie, and I, Gail, were heading to my daughter’s house to pet sit for the weekend, when we decided to stop at a grocery store near our home to pick up some food that we needed to take with us. (That way, we would not have to go out shopping in the weekend city traffic near her house.)
We pulled into the parking lot, rushed into the grocery store and grabbed the three items that we needed, then hurried to the register- wanting to get out of there and on the road before the traffic got bad.
But as we arrived at the checkout counter, we ended up in line RIGHT behind a woman who had a shopping cart FULL of groceries!
She must have seen us practically running to the register, because she smiled at us, stepped aside and motioned for us to go ahead of her. We graciously accepted her offer, and put our three items on the counter.
We only had a few dollars in our checkbook, so I had already added up the items in my head before I had gotten to the register. But when the cashier told me the total price, and it was WAY more than what I had figured out, I looked at her funny, trying to decide what to say next. She realized by the look on my face that something was wrong, so she looked at the cash register monitor again and discovered that she had rang up one of the items wrong. She apologized profusely, which I told her was NOT necessary, and then, while she was correcting her mistake, I made small talk about the hot weather with the woman who had let us go ahead of her in line.
The cashier fixed the error, and gave us the new corrected total. I sighed a HUGE sigh of relief and took my debit card out of my purse to pay for the food, thanking God in my mind that we would still have 3.00 in our checkbook until a donation would come in the mail.
Then what happened next was just amazing! The woman behind us, who had been putting her groceries on the counter while the cashier was correcting our total, smiled at the cashier and said, “Just add their groceries to my bill.”
I wasn’t sure that I had heard her right, because we didn’t even know who this woman was; we had never seen her before. So I just looked at her in amazement with my mouth hanging open, wanting to say something, but not knowing quite what!
Then she simply smiled at me and said, “I am paying for your groceries. Have a nice day.”
Eddie and I both burst into tears, right there in front of ALL of the others in line, and we hugged her and thanked her for her kindness. We were so surprised by the actions of a complete stranger, that we were both overwhelmed emotionally.
We then took our groceries and left the store, thanking God out loud and praying that He would bless this wonderful person who had just helped out two total strangers in need!
How about you? Do you help others? Or are you so wrapped up in worrying about your own needs that you cannot think of helping anyone else?
The Bible states in 1 John 3:17 But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?
This scripture tells us that if you have money, and you see someone who has a need, and you don’t help him out, then don’t even bother to call yourself a Christian- because the love of God is not in you!
(We don’t know whether or not the woman who helped us is a Christian, but if YOU claim to be born-again, when was the last time that you helped out someone in need?)
Gal 6:10 As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.
Paul instructs us here to help all men, but especially them who are of the household of faith – or fellow Christians.
When God tells you to do something for someone, do you do it willingly, or do you first think about your own needs, and then decide that you cannot afford to do what God has told you to do?
Christians are NOT here on earth to get rich – unless they are using their money to help those in need, and to spread the gospel message of salvation! (But they ARE here to tell those lost in sin about forgiveness for their sins through the shed blood of Jesus Christ.)
Look at what Jesus said about helping others.
Mat 6:1 Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.
Mat 6:3 But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth:
Mat 6:4 That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.
Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:1 NOT to do our alms– or good deeds – in public, where others will see what we have done, and will thank us and lift up our names as wonderful. If we publicly help others, people will reward us for our kindness, but God will NOT!
He then continues in verses 3 and 4, telling us that if, on the other hand, we do nice things for others in private, without anyone else knowing what we have done, then God shall reward thee openly, or, will bless us in front of others- as He did for Eddie and me today; and if the reward does not come in this life, then we will have a great reward in front of the entire world on judgment day- when the books are opened and everyone’s deeds, both good and bad, will then be made known to all mankind!
Eddie and I are VERY poor by the standards of the world in which we live- living WELL below the poverty line in America. BUT- we have mountain moving faith, and NO amount of money can buy faith. We live to do what God wants us to do- namely to help others, and we do a lot of things that no one ever knows about- and never will know about- because we do them in private, as Jesus instructed His followers to do in the above scriptures. And God blesses us openly. We have a regular donation that comes into the ministry every month; someone pays the lot rent on the house trailer that we own, and someone else donates Internet, house phone and computers to us.
Matthew 6:31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
Matthew 6:33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
There are MANY times in Eddie’s and my life that we have to decide whether to buy food or to pay our electric bill. And, of course, the electric bill wins EVERY time! BUT- God has always provided for us, and we know that He always will- as long as we seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness– meaning to put God first in our lives and to live for the LORD- which we do, both in public and behind closed doors!
When we, Eddie and Gail, have gone home to live with the LORD, very few people will even remember our names, but that is not important to us. It is NOT our job to promote ourselves; but rather, to promote Jesus. The little ministry that God has entrusted us with has NO name, because, NOWHERE in the Holy Bible do we see such names as the Apostle Paul Evangelistic Association; or even the Jesus Christ Healing and Deliverance Ministry, or how about the Twelve Disciples Helping Hands Ministry.
We try our best to live by the Holy Bible, and that means to NOT draw ANY attention to ourselves, but rather- to point people to Jesus! If the greatest person of all time who ever walked on the face of the earth, namely Jesus Christ, did not have a name on His earthly ministry, they why should we?!
When you face God on judgment day, He will not ask you if you know who Dr. Billy Graham is, or Dr. Charles Stanley, or Joel Osteen, or any other religious leader who has promoted themselves and their own ministries- which they usually name after themselves. But He WILL ask you if you know who JESUS is.
What will YOUR answer be?
May God richly bless all those who seek Him.