By Gary Woodall
Fall is here! It’s harvest time! Harvest is celebrated all over the world in virtually every culture. People everywhere realize that without harvest, famine and starvation will come. With a bountiful harvest there is plenty and we can be satisfied with the food that we need to live. It is truly a cause to celebrate.
In a modern world where our food is provided from far away and most of us have no connection to food production, it is easy to take these things for granted and not be thankful as we should be. Famine has been a part of our existence throughout history. Many think it cannot happen again, but it can and likely will someday. Let’s make an extra effort to be thankful for all of God’s blessings, especially as we receive our food and perhaps we can continue to be blessed with abundance.
The book of 2 Corinthians discusses how we will reap sparingly if we sow sparingly, and how we should be cheerful givers who give as we have purposed in our heart. Then the Holy Scripture goes on to say:
And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work: (As it is written, He hath dispersed abroad; he hath given to the poor: his righteousness remaineth forever. Now He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness; you will be enriched in everything for all liberality, which through us is producing thanksgiving to God. For the ministry of this service is not only fully supplying the needs of the saints, but is also overflowing through many thanksgivings to God (2 Corinthians 9:8-12).
We see here that we are blessed so that we can “abound to every good work” and be “supplying the needs of the saints.”
In the “Lord’s Prayer” (Matt. 6:9-13) Jesus said to ask for our “daily bread.” Do you get only a day’s worth of bread, or do you have a day’s bread and to spare? How can we fail to be overwhelmingly thankful that we are blessed so far beyond our daily needs and have blessings that even kings of old couldn’t expect to enjoy? Thank God!