Commit to God, the returns overflow

Illustration by Robert Labayen

Many years ago after a few days of coughing, I lost my voice. Completely.

I was so scared because I made a living by orally pitching creative work to clients.

My voice was extremely harsh and my throat was in pain for weeks. During this time I made a promise  to God. I said “ When you give me back my voice I will use it to serve you. I will accept any speaking task assigned to me by my Coupes for Christ community.” (I even auditioned for the music ministry but I think they were happier if I didn’t have my voice back!)

During that time, I realized that everything we have –our sight, our hearing, our speech, ability to walk, our life – we can lose them overnight. Or in a matter of seconds. Anytime. And if God would give them back to us in exchange for service to His people, would we refuse ?

We don’t have a right to decline because we  are just custodians of what we “own” . In fact, he commands us to put them to good use. In Matthew 20:26, Jesus said “…whoever wants to be great among you must be their servant.”

But as you can see, that’s how he prospers us. We become “great” by serving others!

By serving God we don’t always mean being a clean-cut altar boy or something like that. It’s about using our talents , whatever talent, to make the world a better place. Such “world” could be even just our tiny sphere of influence.

“Commit your deeds to the Lord, and your plans will succeed.” ( Proverbs 16:3).

We cannot underestimate this promise. Success can come in the abundance that our heart desires.

Preacher Bo Sanchez is one of the people who have proven why God is a God of plenty. In the book How to Turn Thoughts into Things, he explained that the “Operating System” of the Universe is the Law of the Harvest. “ What you plant you harvest…the more you plant, the more you harvest.”

“If you plant mangoes, you get mangoes.

  If you plant bananas, you get bananas.

  If you plant love, you harvest love.”

  If you plant hatred, you harvest hatred, too.”

The Law of Nature shows us that one mango seed can become a mango tree that bears thousands of fruits for many generations! It’s the same with our good deeds. The returns overflow!

“Give and it will be given to you, a good measure pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you used, it will be measured to you.” ( Luke 6:38)

If we are not experiencing this, maybe our fear is bigger than our faith. Fear of running out of treasures, talents and time is preventing us from being generous. Let us replace our fear with faith and we may hear God saying to our face :

“ I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put me to the test!” ( Malachi 3:10)

This passage is giving me goose bumps !

In 1985, my friend asked me for a donation of five hundred pesos for the orphans he was taking care of. I made that promise to him so I had to give on that day. That time, P500 was my whole take home pay for 15 days. Before going home, without any money in my pocket, I attended this party organized by the advertising suppliers.  There was a raffle draw. And I won P 5,000 !

Whew ! I wished I donated P 1,000 and maybe I could have won P 10,000!