dec 21

Psalms 65:9-11
9 You take care of the earth and water it, making it rich and fertile. The river of God has plenty of water; it provides a bountiful harvest of grain, for you have ordered it so.10You drench the plowed ground with rain, melting the clods and leveling the ridges. You soften the earth with showers and bless its abundant crops.11You crown the year with a bountiful harvest; even the hard pathways overflow with abundance.

If you were to make a list of the things God has given you, how long would it take you? An hour? Two hours? A day? A week? It's easy to forget how generous God has been to us. He's given us family and friends and things like freedom and fun and food (and those are just some of the words that start with f!). In fact, God's generosity spans the whole alphabet: Apples Bees Cheddar Cheese Dalmatians Eyesight Frothy Seas Ginkgo Trees Honeydew Melons Ice Jelly Beans Kiwi Fruit Licorice Music Noses Orchids Playful Puppies Quilts Rivers Spectacular Sunsets Teeth Ursa Major (The Big Dipper) Vines Winter Sunshine X rays Yesterdays Zucchini When we stop just a moment to think about it, it's not hard to see that God's generosity is impossible to measure. His generosity is astounding. He didn't have to give us anything. He didn't have to bless us with apples, bees, and cheddar cheese! He could've stopped giving us good things after creating sunrises and summer breezes-but he kept going, all the way to zebras, zephyrs, zinc, zinnias, and zwieback-look it up; it's in the dictionary! But that's the kind of God he is. Generosity is a part of God's nature. That's what makes generosity right: It's like God.

REFLECT: A popular old gospel song says that God "giveth, and giveth, and giveth again." What do you think that means? What makes God so generous? Generosity is right because it's like God. Can you ever be as generous as God? Why or why not? Can you be more generous than you are now? If not, why not? If so, how?

ACT: Make your own list of God's generosity, using each letter of the alphabet. You might even try to make two lists: one of God's generosity to everyone and the second listing God's generosity to you specifically, including names of friends, family members, favorite songs, and so on.

PRAY: Go through your list, from A to 1, praising God for his generosity.

WELL GUYS. I'm pretty aggravated from playing League of Legends. But a games a game, and I decided to come here a bit early today to blow off some steam by reading some inquisitive, thought provoking Devotionals!

Really, for this one, I saw the reading as a very visual picture. If we imagined that we had to grow a plant, and lets say its a strawberry vine. We'd have to work very hard on it, right? There's things like water, temperature, sunlight and location, and even protecting it from other animals that it's not meant for. The Earth and its peoples are God's strawberry vine. He works very hard to provide rain, the sunlight, the warmth, the land we were born in, and he works desperately hard to stop temptation from getting to us.

He's been trying to stop temptation through things like Church, our friends, our parents, ourselves, and especially through Church. It's really sad how we just simply disregard whenever he's really trying to reach to us, and we only try to communicate when trying to reach out to him. In short, we make this a real one sided devoted relationship when God has to provide everything we need to really survive.

This really teaches me how without God, the Earth would be withering, dead strawberry vine. At the same time, you'll see on the other side of the spectrum that God keeps on reaching out to us even through rejection and that's really consistent charity. Something we should all practice at our respective workplaces and homes.

Hello! School is finally over for winter vacation!
I have to go out somewhere in about 10 minutes, so I'm going to make this quick!

God provides us with everything! There is never a lack of our necessities (Unless you live in poverty in a third world country).
But even with all this generosity from God, we act so greedy and keep wanting more and more as if there is a limited supply.
We shouldn't be like that, but instead be like God who gives away without a worry.
Bye!

we all have more than what we need to survive. God has blessed us with his love, food, and water for us, clothes, etc. despite that, we always want something more and something that doesnt really need to be there in our lives for us to live. for instance, you dont need a smart phone to live (hey i dont have a phone and general and im still living!) but people always want to get the latest and hottest phone out now, like a person wants a...iphone 5 and has a galaxy s3, there is no need for an iphone 5 when you have a galaxy s3! we should be thankful for what we have and count the blessings God has blessed us with! dont be greedy and think about others before yourself or just be grateful for what you have. we dont live in a third world country and have more than enough things to survive, so we should thank God for that and try to bring some glory into the things we do fortunately have.

Everything that we have is God given and is meant for us to receive. God always provides and gives because he cares for us and never hesitates to give up his belonging... he even gave up his own son for us. God provides us with everything we need and more but we dont acknowledge the fact that it was God and we think we got it outselves...
I dont think anyone can be as generous as God, but it doesnt hurt to try and be more like God. Everyone can become more and more generous... there is no limit as to how generous you can be.
Even though youre out of supplies and belongings, you can be generous with your actions and what you tell people.
Dont think that generosity is all gifts....

As he shines his light on each and every one of us, we're given a life that is constantly provided from God. Each and every step will have to be done by us, but he provides us the resources, especially our fellow brothers and sisters. He follows us like a shadow, giving us anything necessary needed for our life. As we're dependant on God, we're also dependant on each other. Giving the helping hand to one's need, or listening and praying for one another can lead to remarkable support to someone. To be leaning on one another, to know that someone cares for you, and would do anything in their power to help you. What a privilege it is to have an eager pair of ears to talk to, there's always different ways to give, God sets the primary example with Jesus. He's given not only for salvation, but to SHOW us how to love and give.

Hmm.. I don't have too much to say about this one.
God is good and he gave us all that we have.
That's pretty easy to understand.

I try to be thankful whenever I can and whenever I succeed in or at something, I thank god because I know I wouldn't be able to do it alone.
It is true!

THAT IS ALL!
SEE YOU FELLERS TOMORROW.

I think the greatest example of generosity ever set was by God when he sacrificed Jesus to give us the freedom that we did not deserve. Through Jesus, he gave his unconditional and sacrificial love that affects us even to this day. Sometimes it may be easy to lose sight of what God has done for us, but if we really think about it, we really can say with conviction that all we have is God's. The gift of life, his love, and finally, salvation was all from God and through Jesus Christ and I honestly am in awe when I think about that. So what is our part in all this? I believe that we are called to be just as generous with our love as God was as well as being generous with the Gospel.

Sorry it's so short, but thats what I got from today's devo.

if we were to list the thigns that God has given it. it would be too long. He gave us everything and we should be thankful for it. We should spread his love to others just like how showed his love to us.

9 You take care of the earth and water it, making it rich and fertile. The river of God has plenty of water; it provides a bountiful harvest of grain, for you have ordered it so.

We are given the materials and we should use the materials to serve it as God's purpose and do what he has planned and wanted us to do.

pretty short, exhausting week so glad its winter =))))))))))))))))))))))))0

as christmas and the new year is comming soon, its good to reflect on all the things that God has provided us with.
Many times, when humans are given an ammount of something, they adapt to the situation. there are people who are less unfortunate than us and yet there are things we complain about....like how many tests we have in a week, how big our room is, etc.
if you actually sit down and think about how generous and loving our God is, there is nothing for us to actually complain about.
We are living in a safe country, have money, food to eat, a house to live in, have good friends and family with us, all those things!
He has provided us even more than what we need.
Give thanks to the Lord and be thankful!

Happy holidays everyone!
~Audrey~