Daily Bible Reading with DragoNate #85

Generosity

2 Corinthians 9

I pray blessings on you as you read.

(v. 6-7) "Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver."

My Thoughts

Paul reminds us to be generous. Generosity means to be giving right? Well, what if you don't have enough for yourself? Enough money, enough food, enough clothes, or other stuff. Yes, generosity is about giving, it is also about being selfless as selfishness is the opposite of generosity.

Being generous doesn't mean that you have to go out and donate to charity or that you have to give food to every hungry person you see or even clothes to those who don't have much. You can totally do those things, and it is awesome for you to! If you are unable to do those things, that is alright too. There are other ways you can be generous.

You can be generous with your time, with your knowledge, with your advice. You could probably think of something that you can be generous with, even if you can't afford to give, financially. Paul says here that you reap what you sow, and it is so true. He says that if you sow sparingly, you will reap sparingly, and if you sow generously, you will reap generously.

What Paul is getting at is not necessarily that if you give seventy percent of your income, you will get back more or that God will give you back more. Rather, you will get more in God's kingdom. That is nothing really to do with material things or money, but with your spirit. If your heart is not in the right place and you expect to gain something from your generosity, God will not be pleased.

If you are going to give, then give, and if you are not, then don't. Do not give reluctantly and do not give compulsively. Give because you want to give, not expecting anything in return, not because you feel you have to, but because you want to do so out of the goodness of your heart.

Giving, being generous, is supposed to be a joyful thing. Like at Christmas, the time of giving, it is supposed to be a joyful time! So be joyful this Christmas, whether you give a lot or give a little, if you give with gladness of heart, that is what matters and that is pleasing to God.

Prayer Time

Now you talk to God about what you read, and you can even read this chapter of the Bible for yourself before you do.

Let me know your thoughts on this reading as well.

Thank you for taking the time to read, I pray that what you have read blesses and inspires you! Godbless!

Daily Bible Reading with DragoNate #47

You Reap what You Sow

Hosea 10

I pray blessings on you as you read.

(v. 12-13) " Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, until he comes and showers righteousness on you. But you have planted wickedness, you have reaped evil, you have eaten the fruit of deception..."

My Thoughts

Have you ever heard that phrase, 'You reap what you sow?' It is very true. It is very similar the other phrase, 'What goes around comes around.' If you are not a very nice person to others, no one is going to want to be nice to you. Were you to continue doing things that are wrong, you are going to face the consequences of your choices. The consequences of our choices are the fruit of our labor. That's another phrase. So many phrases this time!

These phrases may continue on from here a bit, sorry if you don't like it, but please continue to read! The two main phrases here, fruit of our labor and reap what you sow, have plant imagery. This is to help us understand better because the meanings here are extremely similar. Only one type of plant will come of a particular seed, and the fruit that it bears will be the same. So as it is with our choices, whether the intent of our choices is either good or evil.

For example, if you lie often, no one will trust you and people are either not going to tell you anything important or they may lie back to you. If you are honest, you will be trustworthy and people won't try as hard to hie things from you. That example brings me to the question, "What about if someone tells you something that you don't have a right to tell anyone else, but someone else asks you about it?" Well in that case, you don't lie about it, but you tell them that it's not your right to say anything about it. Depending on what it is about of course. If it is a serious issue that needs to be addressed, then action needs to be taken.

So, in the case of a lie being the choice, the seed is deception. The fruit is distrust and deception and that is what you will gain from it. Is that really what you want to get from others? If not, then don't let that be what you give to others. Sow love, encouragement, blessings and that is what you will receive in return. You will be blessed, encouraged and loved. Investing these ways in other people is just like investing your money and it is more important and more beneficial and more valuable.

When you invest in people, you are literally making an investment. It is a much better investment than something of monetary value though because money does not last. Your spirit does and we should all be doing everything we can to grow spiritually rather than ignore our spiritual well-being only to suffer when the material things we have invested in mostly are left behind and no longer mean anything.

Focus on building good relationships with people instead of building your wealth. Your wealth will not and can not be there for you in hard times, but people can. If there is someone who looks up to you, invest in them. Invest your time in them and build your relationship. Focus a little bit more on that this week, you will not be disappointed.

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Prayer Time

Now you talk to God about what you read, and you can even read this chapter of the Bible for yourself before you do.

Let me know your thoughts on this reading as well.

Thank you for taking the time to read, I pray that what you have read blesses and inspires you! Godbless!

Daily Bible Reading with DragoNate #32

Fruit of the Spirit

Galatians 5

I pray blessings on you as you read.

(v. 16-17) "So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature..." (v. 22) "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control."

My Thoughts

If you live according to Christ, you have the fruit of the Spirit and you will reap eternal life. You will reap what you sow, whether you sow bad seeds or good ones, you will reap what you sow. What kind of farmer wants to sow bad seeds? None that I can think of. Bad seeds means a bad crop, which means a bad season which means bad business. If you are going to plant a crop, you want to sow good seeds so that you have a rich harvest and income.

So, if you were to plant seeds of the fruit of the Spirit, you will reap a good crop. This is what we should strive for. We should strive to live in the Spirit by having the fruit of the Spirit present in our lives. These are not commandments and they are not something that God wants from you. The fruit of the Spirit are things that God wants for you. Each individual one is very important and will enrich your life even more. I won't go through each in depth right now, I may do that another time as a standalone thing.

God is love. If God is love, and God is in us and we are in God, it only makes sense for us to have love. Like 1 Corinthians 13 says, I am nothing without love. Joy is not just happiness. Joy is when you can go through a hard time and have joy that God is on your side, or you can still have joy in knowing that you will see your loved ones again one day. Joy is a permanent thing that lasts, not an emotion just for the moment. Peace is not worrying about anything. Don't dwell on the negatives. Doing so causes stress. Having peace means to remember and to focus on the positive things. Don't let yourself become stressed or angry or hasty. Doing things too fast all the time causes stress as well.

Patience is to wait on God, knowing that He will not let you down. Again, don't be hasty. Have patience for the things you want, patience with people and patience with God because God is ever so patient with us. Being impatient will only make you have to wait longer. Kindness is to be nice to everyone you interact with. Don't be pushy or impatient, don't get angry or frustrated, instead smile to people. Sometimes people are having a bad day and all they need to feel better is a smile from someone. That's literally all it takes sometimes.

Goodness is similar to kindness. It means to have good in your heart. Goodness makes your intentions good and your words good. Goodness stops you from doing wrong and fills you with a desire to do good things. Faithfulness is, again, trusting and believing; having faith, that God knows what's best and that He will never leave you. Gentleness means to not be harsh toward others. If you are harsh toward others for no reason, how can you  expect God not to be harsh towards you? Be gentle, kind and good toward other people. The last one, self-control, means to have control over your urges. Not giving in to temptation. No matter what it is you feel like doing, you control yourself enough to pray before you act, whether to make a wise choice, or to calm yourself down.

All of these are very important and we should take care that we have each in our own lives so that we can get the best that God wants for us. Remember that you reap what you sow and act accordingly. Do you want eternal life in Christ Jesus? Then you have to live in the Spirit. For the rest of the week after you read this, try to focus on just one of these. The next week, do another, and so on.

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Prayer Time

Now you talk to God about what you read, and you can even read this chapter of the Bible for yourself before you do.

Thank you for taking the time to read, I pray that what you have read blesses and inspires you! Godbless!