Hoarded Resources

   Something that Chambers said today jumped out at me. Blessings from God must be "poured out" to Him to be of any use to those around me. He talks about hoarding, and that has been on my mind lately. He says:

   "If you have become bitter and sour, it is because when God gave you a blessing you hoarded it. Yet if you had poured it out to Him, you would have been the sweetest person on earth. If you are always keeping blessings to yourself and never learning to pour out anything to the Lord, other people will never have their vision of God expanded through you."

   When I hear the word "hoarded" my mind always seem to go to the old hymn He Giveth More Grace by Annie Johnson Flint, and the verse that says:

   "When we have exhausted our store of endurance,
   When our strength has failed ere the day is half done,
   When we reach the end of our hoarded resources,
   Our Father's full giving is only begun."

   I mostly think of hoarded resources as money, assets that will insure my survival when times get hard, security in my last days, but Chambers takes it a step farther. All blessings need to be given back, poured out of my life, an offering to God that will bless others. This in turn becomes another blessing, so that the bowl of blessing does not ever run out.

   In thinking about this, I ran across a blog on the Internet that spoke of Elisha and the woman of Zarepath. She gave him the last bit of flour she had and as a result her supply never ran out. In this blog, Rachel's Ramblings, the writer pointed out:

   "I don't know for sure, but I imagine that the pots weren't ever brimming with flour and oil, but that each day there was just enough for that day. That each day the widow had to trust that the prophet's promise was true. That each time she began to prepare another meal, she found that there was enough food to meet the immediate need. "

   Do I trust enough to pour out my hoarded blessings like this widow?