That Thou Givest Them They Gather

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I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire.  (Luke 24:32)

I heard an acrostic for the word “poor” and I can’t get it out of my mind.

It said the letters P-O-O-R stand for Passing Over Opportunities Repeatedly.

In other words, if you want to be poor, just keep passing up on the opportunities that come your way.

Sometimes people are looking for provisions to be handed to them, but what is handed to them instead is an opportunity, and they miss it.

I see people come to this fork in the road.  A good opportunity comes their way, and they have a decision to make:  take the opportunity or not?

Many times, I see people pass over the opportunity, and then later they wonder why they are still stuck, or they are lacking what they need.

Sometimes I see Christians crying out to God to provide for them, and then they wonder why He doesn’t…but what they didn’t see was that He gave them an opportunity.  They were blind to the opportunity because they were only looking for provision to be handed to them.

In Luke 12:24 Jesus says, “Consider the ravens.”  He said God feeds the ravens, and we are more valuable to Him than ravens.

But get this.  He doesn’t drop the food in the raven’s mouth!  The raven has to go out every day and GATHER his food.  God gives him the opportunity to eat, but He doesn’t hand feed the birds.  So if we are expecting God to hand feed us, we are missing the point.

I like what Psalm 104 verse 28 says in the old King James, “That thou givest them they gather…” In other words, when God supplies it, they go and gather it up.

Nehemiah knew this lesson when he was rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem.  In Nehemiah 2:20 he said that God would grant them success, but guess what.  They had to rise up and actually build the walls with their own hands.  He was basically saying, “God will provide; therefore we will arise and build.”

Yes, God says He will provide for us, but that usually means He is going to provide the opportunities for us rather than just handing it to us.

So, if you don’t want to be poor, don’t Pass Over Opportunities Repeatedly.

And remember our part in the equation found in Psalm 104 verse 28, “That thou givest them…THEY GATHER.”

May God bless you today.

I’m Doug Apple.