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A Stewardship Moment: Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow

 

“Praise God from whom all Blessings Flow!” Known by many of us as the “Doxology,” this is perhaps the most frequently used piece of music in public worship today. Many churches sing it every Sunday. The words are so familiar that here at Grace we don’t even print the lyrics in our Sunday Bulletin. However, most of us sing it loudly each time that we are asked to do so.

This is actually the last verse of a longer hymn, “Awake, My Soul, and with the Sun,” written by Thomas Ken, in 1674, for his students at Winchester College. It does not say “Praise God from whom some Blessings Flow,” but we are reminded that all of our blessings come from the Lord. Psalm 100 (King James Version) tells us that “it is He that has made us and not we ourselves.”

When do we sing this hymn? We sing it as we present our offerings at the Altar each Sunday. We thank and praise God by giving back some of the abundance that we have received from him. During the same part of the service, we also recall Paul’s message to us in Ephesians to “walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself for us . . . “

Let us remember to pay homage to our Lord as we thank him and praise him for all our blessings. Every time we sing “Praise God from whom all Blessings Flow,” let us pay attention to the message that is being given to us.

Thoughts on Stewardship: Where Your Treasure Is

When we think of generosity, we might look at the size of the gift or the nobility of the cause. But Jesus measured generosity by a radically new standard: the condition of the giver's heart. "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." (Matthew 6:21). So, giving is more than an obligation for followers of Christ; it is an exciting opportunity to lay up treasure that will last for all eternity.

"The Lord Jesus himself said: 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.' " (Acts 20:35b). Yet statistics show that U.S. Christians give proportionately less than we did during the Great Depression. Today, like no other time in history, God has positioned His people with unprecedented wealth and opportunity to glorify the risen Christ by mirroring His generosity.