Earth’s Bounties Give Evidence of God’s Love, August 22
Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and
multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your
righteousness, while you are enriched in everything for all liberality, which
causes thanksgiving through us to God.
2 Corinthians 9:10, 11
, NKJV.
As we are continually receiving the blessings of God, so are we to be continually
giving. When the heavenly Benefactor ceases to give to us, then we may be excused;
for we shall have nothing to bestow. God has never left us without evidence of His
love, in that He did us good. He gives us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons,
providing us abundantly with His bounties, and filling our hearts with gladness. He
has declared that “while the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and
heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.”
We are sustained every moment by God’s care, and upheld by His power. He
spreads our tables with food. He gives us peaceful and refreshing sleep. Weekly He
brings to us the Sabbath, that we may rest from our temporal labors, and worship
Him in His own house. He has given us His Word to be a lamp to our feet and a
light to our path. In its sacred pages we find the counsels of wisdom; and as oft as
we lift our hearts to Him in penitence and faith, He grants us the blessings of His
grace. Above all else is the infinite gift of God’s dear Son, through whom flow all
other blessings for this life and for the life to come.
Surely goodness and mercy attend us at every step. Not till we wish the infinite
Father to cease bestowing His gifts on us, should we impatiently exclaim, Is there
no end of giving? Not only should we faithfully render to God our tithes, which
He claims as His own, but we should bring a tribute to His treasury as an offering
of gratitude. Let us with joyful hearts bring to our Creator the first fruits of all His
bounties—our choicest possessions, our best and holiest service.—
The Review and
Herald, February 9, 1886
.
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