Genesis 21:17 (KJV) And God heard the voice of the lad; and the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said unto her, What aileth thee, Hagar? fear not; for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is.
18 Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him in thine hand; for I will make him a great nation.
19 And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water; and she went, and filled the bottle with water, and gave the lad drink.
Have you ever looked for something…keys, glasses, sunglasses…only to find out that you were holding the keys in your hands the whole time or wearing your glasses or your sunglasses were perched on your head?
Someone says…where are my glasses?…you are wearing them.
Hagar had an experience like that, God opened her eyes to see something that was right there, but she didn’t see it at first.
The reason this is being mentioned is that one of the blessings of paying tithes and offerings is that God can help the tither see or do something that was “hid” before.
I’ve had that experience. It may be that nothing around me changes in the natural…the same circumstances are there…but for some reason I am able to see or do something I didn’t before, and that action helps solve a problem.
Malachi 3:8 Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.
9 Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation.
10 Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.
11 And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts.
12 And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the Lord of hosts.
And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes…sometimes the devourer that needs to be rebuked is the propensity, the tendency to use time and money and talents unwisely.
Not every battle is without.
II Corinthians 7:5 For, when we were come into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side; without were fightings, within were fears.
II Corinthians 4:6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.
8 We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;
9 Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;
10 Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.
11 For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.
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