1 Corinthians 2:12

¹²Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.

As a child of the Most High God, God wants you to know the things that have been freely given to you. He wants you to receive them freely although it cost Him His Son. He paid the price, but He wants you to receive the blessings freely. That is His love toward you.

Perhaps you are asking God, “How is it that I don’t have this blessing? And why do I have so little of that?”

I believe that He is saying this to you: “What do you lack, My child? Health? Take it! It has been paid for with the life of My Son.

“Do you need peace of mind? My Son wore the crown of thorns on His head to give it to you. Take it!

“Lack wisdom? Take My wisdom!

“Need victory? Victory is not something you attain. It is a gift to be received. Take it!

“Take My provision! Take My favour! Every time you come into My Presence, take, and take some more!”

God, your heavenly Father, wants you to receive like the prodigal son, who deserved nothing, but received everything. (Luke 15:11–24) God delights in giving freely. And He delights in you receiving freely because it shows that you value and appreciate His Son’s sacrifice.

You miss it when you are busy trying to earn what has been freely given to you, when you think that you must do more for God to bless you, or that you must pay the price for it. God cannot give it to you based on your works because if it is by works, it is no longer by grace. When you try to work for it, you frustrate the grace of God and make light of Jesus’ work at Calvary.

My friend, the days of trying, striving and earning are over. The days of take, take and take more have come. Take and you will bring pleasure to God’s heart!

1 Corinthians 3:7

⁷So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.

Sometimes, we think that the increase or success which we enjoy is the result of our own efforts or hard work. Now, I am not advocating laziness, but the truth is that God is the one behind our increase.

We see this truth when we read the story of Ruth, a young widow from Moab, who worked as a gleaner in a barley field from morning till evening. Now, we could attribute the entire ephah — a substantial 10-day supply — of barley she collected at the end of the day to her hard work. After all, she did work all day in the field.

But when we read about how Boaz, the owner of the field, had secretly told his reapers to “let grain from the bundles fall purposely for her; leave it that she may glean” (Ruth 2:16), we know that it was because of Boaz’s intervention that Ruth ended up with so much.

I believe that Jesus, our heavenly Boaz, does the same thing for us today. He causes people to favour us and “drop” blessings on us because He loves us. Then, He causes us to “pick up” these blessings. Often, it happens so seemingly naturally we forget that it is the Lord who has blessed us with the increases.

A church member who runs a florist business shared that once, God caused someone who needed a lot of flowers to “drop” a huge order with her. She also shared that she was hardly making any money even though she had been working hard for many years. But when she became a Christian after coming to our church, she began to confess every day that God’s favour was on her. Within a few weeks, that big order worth S$14,000 came in. Only God could have given her such a supernatural increase.

My friend, your hard work is not behind your increase. The Bible tells us that it is “God who gives the increase”. He is the one who is behind your increase and He delights in blessing you because He loves you!