RECEIVE IN ORDER TO GIVE
“Now the Lord had said to Abram: ‘Get out of your country, from your family
and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you.
I will make you a great nation; I will bless you. . . and you shall be a blessing’”
(Genesis 12 I, 2).
THE STORY IS TOLD THAT WHEN A PATIENT visited Dr. Alfred Adler s office for reasons of depression, the renowned psychiatrist immediately asked them if they wanted to be healed. The answer was always the same.
“Of course I do!”
And Adler’s “recipe” was also always the same: “Every day, for two weeks, do something that brings happiness to someone else.”
The therapy Adler prescribed to his patients had guaranteed results because we were created to be channels of blessings for others. And this is exactly what our biblical text reminds us of today. “I will bless you,” the Lord told Abram, “rind you shall be a blessing. ” How did God bless the patriarch? Abraham (as he was called after God changed his name) became the father of a great nation; he earned the respect of his neighbors, and was a man “very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold” (Genesis 13:2). But the patriarch was not to selfishly possess these blessings. He would receive in order to give. And from the biblical record we know that this is precisely what he did, by benefiting others with his goods, and especially by sharing the knowledge of God wherever he established himself.
By his example, Abraham demonstrated that “the law of life in the universe” is to receive in order to give, as the well-known quote from The Desire of Ages says, “No bird that cleaves the air, no animal that moves upon the ground, but ministers to some other life. There is no leaf of the forest, or lowly blade of grass, but has its ministry…. The sun sheds its light to gladden a thousand worlds. The ocean, itself the source of all our springs and fountains, receives the streams from every land, but takes to give.”—ch. 1, p. 20.
More importantly, by his example the patriarch glorified the name of God. How do we know? Because as we look at Jesus, “we see that it is the glory of our God to give.”—Ibid., p. 21.
Are you receiving blessings daily? And are you sharing them? Remember that
God’s plan is not only to bless you, but to mode Jon a blessing to others.
Dear Jesus, just as heavenly blessing como to us daily,
today I too, want to give to others
from all that I have received,
and thus also be part of the «circuit of beneficence. . .
representing the character of the great Giver, the law of life.» —Ibid.
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Taken from: Devotional Readings for Adults 2022
“GREAT IS OUR GOD!”
From: FERNANDO ZABALA
Colaboradores: Xiomara Perdomo & Angelica Cuate.