The Real Meaning of Life

https://biblehub.com/nkjv/2_kings/4.htm

Prior to my wife’s illness, I wasn’t a Christian. Many would say they weren’t a good Christian, but I wasn’t even a Christian at all. Yes, I believed, I just didn’t follow Christ.

Bear with me as I tell the story again, when my wife was diagnosed with a terminal illness is when I decided to become a Christian, for selfish reasons, to gain favor in hopes He would extend my wife’s life. I didn’t try to hide it from my wife, I was totally honest with her the changes I would be making. For example, I told her not to change our diets just for me, but on the evenings in which she served pork, I would just sup on the side dishes. I’m really not very picky or demanding about my food.

And when I told her I was going to start tithing, she couldn’t believe it. We were living payday to payday, not because we had to, but rather we lived luxurious lives where we did what we want, when we wanted, and to live that life, you don’t have money to save for a rainy day. So when I told her I was going to start tithing, she didn’t think that I could do it because it would mean changing my lifestyle and giving up the extra things we enjoyed.

But do you want to k now something? I never missed the money. I began giving a tenth of my income to the Lord, and I never noticed a difference in my checkbook, in fact it was just the opposite. I would usually still have money in the bank when payday came.

That, is the way God can bless you. We haven’t read yet, but Jesus managed to feed over 5,000 people with just a few fish and a few loaves of bread. And just like my bank account, when they were finished passing the fish and bread around, scripture says that “everyone was full and there was bread left over.”

Today, we read about a similar story. An old destitute widow was getting ready to lose everything to the debt collector, so she summoned Elisha for his help. All she had a just a small vessel of oil, but he instructed her to borrow vessels from all of her neighbors, and to fill them up and sell the oil to pay the debtors. And just like the fish and bread, just like my bank account, her vessel of oil never ran dry, and she was able to fill every vessel she could collect with oil, and still had some in her own vessel left.

Skeptics and non-believers would read this and say this is just a story, that it is physically impossible, but I beg to differ. Anything is possible. “The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away” is the saying (I’m not positive it is scripture or not), but I don’t believe the Lord takes anything away from us. If we separate ourselves from Him, he gives us free choice to do what we wish, and if we do something stupid to lose all of our money or all of our assets, it’s not the fault of God. Some could say it’s bad luck, I say “bad luck” is caused by Satan who wants you to blame God for your problems. And I can attest, I am a witness, that everything belongs to God, He is our great provider. If we are nice enough to return ten percent back to Him, or rather His ministers, He will bless us in untold ways.

Many people think tithing really doesn’t go to God, and it doesn’t. But it goes to pay for your pastors and ministers. It originated with the Levites, who were assigned the job of caring for the Tabernacle and ministering to the people. You were supposed to give a tenth of your first born livestock or a tenth of your harvest to the Levites who did not have land for livestock to graze upon or land to plant in crops. And it is no different today, your tithe goes to help pay the salary of your pastors.

I don’t attend church, but I have many different online ministries I give my tithe to. My church was small and closed due to lack of membership, but because of COVID, many churches started broadcasting their services or going “online” with their ministry. I still enjoy those, so that is where I send my tithe. But in all honesty, It’s God’s money to begin with, I’m just sharing it back with His servants. And just like the woman who’s oil vessel never ran dry because she was blessed by God, I pay my tithe, and God in return blesses me in ways I don’t even know about.

We see another miracle in this chapter where God, through Elisha, feeds 100 men with just a small sack of grain, and had some left over. Miracles, miracle, everywhere!

There are two other miracles in this chapter too that you can read about, one is where God blesses a woman with a child after she had shown great kindness to the Prophet Elisha. And later when that son dies, Elisha is able to bring him back to life because of God’s healing power.

One more story, then I’ll quit rambling, I have an adopted special needs daughter who was previously a foster daughter. She is mentally retarded from an illness she suffered as a toddler, has a multiple seizure disorder, and is a Type 1 Diabetic. She if extremely fragile. When my wife was alive, she was her primary caregiver, but after my wife’s passing, I had no choice but to take on the job.

Now I’ll confess…I always wanted to be a fireman, but I only accepted the medical duties because I had no choice. My hometown fire department was a combined fire/EMS department. My heart was always with the fire side of things, but I never really cared for the medical side. My heart wasn’t into it, and while I was fully confident and prepared that I was capable of crawling into a burning structure and pulling a victim out if need be, I didn’t have the same confidence when it came to rendering medical care. I was always afraid of misdiagnosing an illness or providing the wrong type of care for the problem, and the last thing I wanted was to do something that resulted in the death of a patient. But as I said, I accepted those duties because it was a requirement of the job.

And how does fate find me? Now in my retirement years, I’m faced with providing medical care to a very fragile patient, my daughter. Her pediatric diabetic specialist always told my wife that she was so fragile, she wouldn’t live to see her twenties. And today, as I type this and watch her playing on the floor, I can tell you that she is now 31 years old. She still has seizures daily. She is still an extremely fragile Type 1 diabetic whose blood sugar levels have to be monitored closely.

And I used to sit and wonder why it was me that was faced with this task, given my predisposition of not liking it. And one day the light came on and I realized that it wasn’t me who was caring for her, it was God. God is the one that has kept her alive all of these years, he has just used my wife’s hands and now mine to render the care she needs. I’ve often thought, “I don’t have a clue what I am doing!” And it is true. When her blood sugar is high, it is simply a guess at how much insulin to inject into her. And when her blood sugar is low, it is simply a guess at how much of a snack to give her. And that is when I realized, it’s not me rendering the care, it is God.

God can perform miracles. He can allow me to pay tithe, but never go broke. He can feed 5000 with just a few fish and a few loaves of bread. He can give a woman enough oil to sell and pay off her debts, and still have oil. And he can keep a girl alive, who was suppose to see twenty years old, through her twenties and now into her thirties.

God is an awesome God! So take time now to think, if you turn to God, if you seek Him and return some of what is rightfully His, He will bless you more than you can imagine.

And all of God’s people said, “Amen!”