The Blessed Life
If you were at one of Central’s services this past weekend you received a copy of The Blessed Life by Robert Morris. Morris is the senior pastor of Gateway Church in Texas and will be speaking at Central on the weekend of March 16-17. The biggest strength of this book is the stories that he tells of ways in which God has moved both in his life and in the lives of those around him. It left me realizing that I need to pray bigger prayers and look for ways in which God can supernaturally get involved in how I give.
One of my favorite ideas that he develops in this book is the difference the spirit of pride and the spirit of poverty. Both of them are unhealthy and keep us from gratitude. Unfortunately, I can think of plenty of times I’ve felt both of them and even more times I’ve seen them in people around me.
The spirit of pride says, “Wealth comes from hard work.†The spirit of poverty says, “Wealth comes from the devil.†The spirit of pride says, “You should be proud of what you have.†The spirit of poverty says, “You should be ashamed of what you have.†Pride wants people to think that we paid more. Poverty wants people to think we paid less. Gratitude doesn’t care what people think; it only cares what God thinks!Here are some other ideas in his book that I particularly resonated with:
You can find out more about Robert Morris and his church by clicking here.God is interested in creating the heart of a farmer. A farmer prepares the soil, plows, plants, carefully oversees and seeks to protect what he has planted but trusts God for the increase in due season. If he doesn’t see it come at an expected time, he knows in due season it will come. If he’s hailed out, rained out, stormed out or droughted out, he still farms because he has the heart of a farmer. Many people talk about the promise of “a hundredfold†return (Matt. 13:8,23). The truth is, not every farmer receives that kind of return. Being “blessed†means having supernatural power working for you. By contrast, being “cursed†means having supernatural power working against you. The devil hates Spirit-led giving because it simultaneously diminishes his kingdom and makes us more like our heavenly Father. The truth is that God not only uses our stuff to test us, but He uses other people’s stuff as well. In other words, how we respond to someone else being blessed says a lot about the condition of our hearts. We must pass the test of need—trusting God to take care of us. We must pass the test of greed—using abundance wisely and in obedience to God’s promptings. Moreover, we must pass the test of seed—sowing bountifully—as we observe the three principles of seedtime and harvest. I was born selfish, but I was born again generous.
Do You Want to Read the Bible Without Falling Behind?
Sign up your email and I’ll send you a PDF to download and use my custom-made reading plan system. There’s no way to fall behind on this system and every day will be different no matter how long you use it!
I’ll send future content directly to your inbox AND you can dive into the Bible like never before.
Download Your Free Copy
