R. Tyler Scott
Have you ever had someone try to give you something and you waved them away? I recently had this happen to me and it made me realize where my problem is with receiving. It was a Sunday morning and church had just let out. When we opened the doors, it was raining very hard and the wind was blowing. Since it hadn’t been raining that morning when everyone came to church, no one had an umbrella. When I turned around, I saw an umbrella in the corner. When I found out that it didn’t belong to anyone, I opened it up and began to walk some of the ladies out to their car. All of them seemed to appreciate it, but a couple of the younger folks smiled and said they didn’t need any help, they would just run to the car. They did and they got very wet. Even some of the men when I tried to help them, they tried to wave me off. After everyone was gone, I began to think about this. I completely understood those who waved me off or didn’t want any help. You see, six years ago I broke my leg in three places and was literally bed ridden for two weeks and off work for three more. I wasn’t able to work and being self employed, I didn’t have any vacation days built up. I knew God was going to take care of me, but when people started coming around and politely leaving an envelope, or when the church we were attending took up a love offering, It bothered me. Not that they were willing to do it, but it hurt my pride. I believed that God was going to take care of me, but I wanted him to do it because I didn’t think I was to good to get blessings from God. But when he used normal people like me, my old ugly PRIDE raised it’s head and I struggled. Thankfully I was able to overcome that PRIDE and appreciate that God was taking care of me through the blessings of his people. Not only was I receiving a blessing, but I know that they were to. Not because it was me, but because they were being faithful to what God was telling them to do. If I had allowed my pride to overwhelm me and not accept these gifts, not only would I have missed blessings, but they would have to.
So I’ve said all this to make this point. When God allows you to help another brother or sister, please do it. However, when you are on the receiving end of those same blessings, accept them with gratitude and know that accepting God’s blessings with grace is just as important as giving with grace. That is another step in the maturation of a Christian and we sometimes fail that test.
