However, there are still lots of people who are having difficulty in doing this noble thing that God intended for us to do. I enumerated four main steps in becoming a blessing.
Please note that I used the phrase “Forget yourself”. The ultimate hindrance to becoming a blessing is being too concern for own self. This is the main reason why we cannot become a blessing to others because of too much love for oneself. Becoming a blessing is more on forgetting your own self and giving the rest to others.
Step 1: Forget yourself and learn to love God above all (Matthew 6:33).
33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.Sometimes, even Christians fail to love God above all. They gave too much importance to the blessing rather to the giver of blessings which results to idolatry. The passage above is clear enough to remind us that we do not have to worry about anything, but we have to seek first his kingdom. If you remember our lesson last year about “Kingdom of God”, it is not a place, but it is a system.
In the book of Matthew, whenever he mentions about “Kingdom of God”, in my own opinion, it is also rightly interpreted to be “God’s System” rather than that of a place. In the whole book, Matthew used two terms concerning the “Kingdom”. The other term is the “Kingdom of Heaven” which was used 31 times and you can also see this term in the book of Matthew alone. The term “Kingdom of God” was used only 5 times in the book of Matthew.
Granted that the “kingdom of God” is a system, it is clearer now to see the passage that we are to seek first the kingdom of God, which is “the system of God” and his righteousness, then all these will be added unto us.
This a thing to ponder, the greatest rival of God in us, is our very self. Too much love for own self, is idolatry. God can never work to those hearts that harbors idolatry. Matthew 22:37 -38 37Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38This is the first and great commandment.”
Step 2: Forget yourself and learn to love your neighbor (Matthew 22:39).
39And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
If our self hinders us in loving God the more, the same self, hinders us in loving our neighbors. One of the reasons why we cannot give to those who are in need is our too much love for ourselves.
Let us take note that loving our neighbor is the second great commandment. This is what summarizes the second half of the Ten Commandments. Sometimes, Christians have no problem in giving something to God, but they have a problem in becoming generous to others.
Let us be honest in ourselves, becoming generous to others is a lot more difficult to work on than to give something to God. Seeing God as our creator, and realizing that we owe something to Him, then it will be easier for us to give to the Lord. But how about in the cases were we do not owe anything from them?
How can we ever give to someone that owes something to us? This is why it is difficult to work on this kind of generosity. But if we only look down deeper in the Scriptures, becoming generous even to those who owe us, is obedience to the Lord and is pleasing our God. As we are emphasizing “God’s System” to be different in our system, we can see that it works the other way around.
Our system says, “do not give but save, the more you save the more that you will have something in the future.” God’s system says, “38Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” (Luke 6:38, please read starting v. 32.)
Step 3: Forget yourself at the very moment, but think for yourself in the future (Matthew 22:39).
39And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
The Bible did not say love your neighbors alone. But is says, “love your neighbor as yourself. I believe that the Bible always maintain the balance of what it teaches. It teaches us to love others, it also teaches us to love ourselves. Of course, not in the way the world teaches. The world teaches, “love yourself the most”, while the Bible teaches “if you love yourself, learn to love your neighbor as much as you love yourself.”
The point is, loving others is actually loving yourself. One of the mistakes that we are making is that w love our self too much which makes us forget others. But all these should be interconnected because the Bible did not make any separation on these two things. Instead, they should come together.
To make it clear, loving yourself is not bad. It is even Biblical to love your self. What is bad is loving yourself too much without extending that love to anybody else. Doing this is what we call idolatry.
Step 4: Forget yourself, stand up, and give what is due for the Lord (2Corinthians 8:11).
11Now finish the work, so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it, according to your means.
This teaching is supposed not to end here, but it should be put into actions. Should it only pass from one of our ears through other? Becoming generous and specially becoming a blessing is a real thing. It is not something that we have to forget and not apply. It is something that we have to adjust ourselves to fit to this act of righteousness.
This is something to work on as a part of our spiritual discipline. By understanding and applying the essence of becoming a blessing is fulfilling God’s purpose.
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