Ask yourself, are you a beggar or are you a believer? The root word of beggar is beg and the root word of believer is believe. To say you are a believer means that you trust God and His Word. The bible says that the Just shall live by faith. It also says that the just walks by faith and not by sight. As a believer, we are encouraged to make sure our trust is in God and God alone. The bible tells us that God will supply all of our needs according to His riches in glory not according to our riches in the earth. This means receiving from God has nothing to do with the riches we have or don’t have. The bible encourages us to make God our only source, to put our confidence in Him and not to trust in our own ability or depend on others. Although God can use others and our own abilities to meet our needs and accomplish His will, it is still very much a priority to not misappropriate our faith. In other words, our faith is not in what God uses to answer our prayers but in the God who answers them.
The bible tells us that not only is our faith more valuable than gold but the trial of our faith is more valuable than gold. What this means is the challenge, situation or device that God uses to develop our faith is more valuable and the trila itself should be more desired than money or anything else. But how many “Believers: run from the trials of faith, looking to escape them to be comforted by something that is less superior and valuable. For example: When we find ourselves in need of money. The fact that we need the money means we don’t have it and if we don’t have it, it most likely means we didn’t earn it or we didn’t earn enough to either cover our situation or our spending habits. Then we go looking for help. Help from someone, or an institution, that did earn it and has enough left over to give to us in our time of need. Or we look for favor, someone who will give us time to come up with the money we need.
Beggars do not have jobs. They do not earn any of the money they receive from others; others who put in the hard work to earn their blessings. The bible says that there will always be poor people. The question we must ask is what makes a person poo? Is it a lack of money or a lack of faith? You see God has already said that faith is more valuable than gold or money. This means that if you ever lose your money, don’t have any money or ever in need of money, all you need is faith to acquire money or anything else you may need. Contrary to the idea, "It takes money to make money"!
Sometimes when we find ourselves in financial need we feel bad about taking handouts. As we should! We should feel so bad that it moves us into obeying God, and learning to live by faith so we as believers don’t find ourselves as beggars, begging. Surprisingly, God looks at many of His children like beggars than believers. Because though we have problems with taking handouts from others we seem to have no problem with accepting handouts from Him. We must understand that the Earth and its system of operation, in many ways is a replica of Heaven and its ways. We use money as currency here on earth. In Heaven, faith is its currency. When we go to God and ask Him to give us things without exchanging faith for it we are begging. We are asking for a handout. The bible says that without faith no man pleases the Lord.
Now you may say: I have a job; I earn my money; I’m not a beggar; but I don’t know for sure that my faith is in God and not my job, my paycheck, or my own ability. Do I have to lose everything in order for me to locate my faith or to start using my faith? No, you do not. All you have to do if you are sincere at wanting to please God is ask God to grow your faith right where you are. Know that trials will come to develop your faith. You just have to know what to do when the trial(s) comes.
If you’ve ever found yourself in this situation you are not alone. Many of us have found ourselves one or many times depending on the level of our faith or level of our stewardship. What I would like to share with you is that you never have to be in that situation again. There is a way that you can always have exactly what you need when you need it. Learn to be a true Believer and live by faith.
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