Magnolia Tree Blessings

June 12, 2012

I received this email from Emily this morning.  She’s my faithful prayer partner for about 30 years, and we have prayed together every morning of the last 9 years.  We begin our 10^th year in six days.  Hallelujah!!!

I pray your are blessed as you read this:

As Teddi and I talked this morning about how the Lord’s financial blessings work, I saw Giving To the Lord differently from how I’ve seen it before.  I’m going to try to put on paper what I saw then.

When I give something the one time, it’s just that small amount, say $5.  Even if I give $100 or more one time, it’s just that one amount.  But when I commit to give on a regular basis, let’s say $5 a month, that gift becomes larger and larger - $5 the first time, then $5 more, then $5 more, $5 more, $5 more… and so on.  

After a year I’ve given $60.  That seed of $60 is much larger than the $5 I started with, and the blessing promised to me is much, much larger than for my first $5.  We receive a 100-fold reward for what we sow into the Kingdom!  Plus, God rewards faithfulness… and perseverance.  Then, as we keep on giving, we accumulate another year’s worth of seed, then another and another...

Now imagine a magnolia tree.  Think about a magnolia seed pod, with more than a dozen red seeds in/on it.  Well, each magnolia tree produces many, many seed pods…..and a huge, old tree will produce hundreds of seed pods, thousands of seeds each summer. Giving into the Kingdom is like that.  When we’ve given for years, think about how many seeds God has to work with to multiply His blessings back to us!

And when we add our gift to others gifts, because we are giving to an organization that gives, the power of our little seed is multiplied again. Women Who Pray gives $30 a month to each of several different ministries, each of which has a proven track record of bringing souls into, and bearing fruit for, God’s Kingdom. 

Teddi and Women Who Pray have been giving to some of these ministries for years.  When we put our money into Women Who Pray, we are digging wells in Africa, feeding victims of famine, evangelizing India with Vijay Raj and the prayer blanket, broadcasting the gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth with TBN, etc.  

And for those of us who haven’t been giving long, or who don’t have much to give, we don’t have to begin with one tiny gift …out there all by itself.  No, we can step in and join our gift to what is already reaping extreme magnolia tree blessings, the multiplied goodness of the Lord back to those who feed His sheep, clothe those in dire poverty, minister to the orphans and the widows, pray for and lay hands on the sick, and on…

We are fulfilling the Great Commission.

Until the next time….

Teddi

 

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