Right Understanding of Scattering
Minister: | Rev. Ronald Van Overloop |
Date: | 2/19/2014 PM (Prayer Day) |
Text: | Proverbs 11:24-26 |
Psalters: | 171, 402, 357, 305 |
- The Meaning
- “Scattereth” refers to the farmer sowing seed by broadcasting.
- God applies this seeming contradiction to our giving to others.
- Our texts speaks of two kinds of giving.
- All Christians are as farmers whose work is to sow and scatter (which is a loss to self).
- There is also the spreading of the truth of God’s Word.
- Some important principles God has established.
- All that we have belongs to God (Ps. 50:7-11) both before and after He gives it to us.
- True giving is a constant acknowledgement that all belongs to God and that we are to use everything in His service.
- We are called to praise God with the things He has entrusted to us.
- Real giving is a matter of the heart (II Cor. 9:7; Mark 12:41-44).
- God teaches that His wisdom of giving liberally contradicts natural man’s “wisdom.”
- God ordained in creation a way to bestow blessings: as we sow, so He gives the harvest.
- God counts what we give to others as giving to Him.
- This truth is a check on our flesh wanting to hold back from doing good for fear of losing.
- All that we have belongs to God (Ps. 50:7-11) both before and after He gives it to us.
- Blessing: we “shall be made fat” and “shall be watered also himself” (“will drink fully”).
- We sin when we keep back (even though we increase in worldly goods) and ends in “poverty.”
- First, our giving yields a harvest, related to our giving.
- Second, part of the blessed harvest is our enlarged capacity for giving thanks.
- Finally, God’s supreme scattering is the gift of the unspeakable Gift (II Cor. 9:15) which increases His glory and our salvation.
- The power of His love enables us to return all that we receive to Him in praise – He is glorified by our grateful praise.
- It is the consciousness of divine grace unlocks our closed hearts and loosens are fingers so we give lovingly and lavishly.