Day 36 Senior Partner

“Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven.” Matthew 6:20

Guess what? No matter how hard we try, we cannot outgive God.

We are introduced, in today’s devotion, to a friend of Mark Batterson’s named Stanley Tam. Stanley is the founder of the United States Plastic Corporation. More than half century ago, he made a decision to make God his Senior Partner and gave his business over to God believing that God would bless his business, as he wanted to honor God from the start. Feeling convicted, Stanley transferred every share of company stock to his Senior Partner and became a salaried employee of the company he had started. Since that day, he has given away more than $120 million.

During a memorable meal between Mark and Stanley, Mark was blessed with a lifetime of wisdom. He says, “Stanley discovered the key that unlocks the joy of generosity: what we keep we ultimately lose; what we give away we ultimately get back. So Stanley said, ‘I just send it ahead by giving it away.’ Stanley also puts it, ‘A man can eat only one meal at a time, wear only one suit of clothes at a time, drive only one car at a time. All this I have. Isn’t that enough?’

The same God who helped Stanley is the same God who can accomplish the plans and purposes He has put in your heart. As Mark says so well, “If it’s God-ordained, it’s inevitable.

“Few things are as inspiring as seeing childlike faith in a very old person. That’s Stanley Tam. He is the youngest oldest person I know. He simply takes God at His word. And when we take God at His word, God stands by His word.

“One of the biggest mistakes we make in reading history, whether biblical history or history in general, is thinking that those who lived before us were different from us. They weren’t. If God did it for them, He can do it for us. And if we do what they did in the Bible, I’m convinced that God will do what He did. Nothing has changed. God wants to renew His deeds in our day. But we need to pray the price. Leonard Ravenhill put it this way: ‘One of these days some simple soul will pick up the Book of God, read it, and believe it. Then the rest of us will be embarrassed. We have adopted the convenient theory that the Bible is a Book to be explained, whereas first and foremost it is a Book to be believed (and after that to be obeyed).’

“The greatest legacy a person can leave is a complete surrender of their life to the lordship of Jesus Christ. If we don’t hold out on God, God won’t hold out on us. Take God at His promise as expressed by the psalmist: ‘No good thing (Psalm 84:11) does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.’ And these good things will pass from generation to generation and become great things. God will answer our prayers in the lives of offspring we won’t meet until the Father’s family reunion at the marriage supper of the Lamb. But every prayer we pray, every gift we give, every sacrifice we make, and every step of faith we take is an inheritance left to the next generation. And our prayers live on, long after we die, in their lives.”

What we keep we ultimately lose; what we give away we ultimately get back. -Mark Batterson

Are you leaving an inheritance?

Prayerfully, Paige

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Day 36 Senior Partner

“Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven.” Matthew 6:20

Guess what? No matter how hard we try, we cannot outgive God.

We are introduced, in today’s devotion, to a friend of Mark Batterson’s named Stanley Tam. Stanley is the founder of the United States Plastic Corporation. More than half century ago, he made a decision to make God his Senior Partner and gave his business over to God believing that God would bless his business, as he wanted to honor God from the start. Feeling convicted, Stanley transferred every share of company stock to his Senior Partner and became a salaried employee of the company he had started. Since that day, he has given away more than $120 million.

During a memorable meal between Mark and Stanley, Mark was blessed with a lifetime of wisdom. He says, “Stanley discovered the key that unlocks the joy of generosity: what we keep we ultimately lose; what we give away we ultimately get back. So Stanley said, ‘I just send it ahead by giving it away.’ Stanley also puts it, ‘A man can eat only one meal at a time, wear only one suit of clothes at a time, drive only one car at a time. All this I have. Isn’t that enough?’

The same God who helped Stanley is the same God who can accomplish the plans and purposes He has put in your heart. As Mark says so well, “If it’s God-ordained, it’s inevitable.

“Few things are as inspiring as seeing childlike faith in a very old person. That’s Stanley Tam. He is the youngest oldest person I know. He simply takes God at His word. And when we take God at His word, God stands by His word.

“One of the biggest mistakes we make in reading history, whether biblical history or history in general, is thinking that those who lived before us were different from us. They weren’t. If God did it for them, He can do it for us. And if we do what they did in the Bible, I’m convinced that God will do what He did. Nothing has changed. God wants to renew His deeds in our day. But we need to pray the price. Leonard Ravenhill put it this way: ‘One of these days some simple soul will pick up the Book of God, read it, and believe it. Then the rest of us will be embarrassed. We have adopted the convenient theory that the Bible is a Book to be explained, whereas first and foremost it is a Book to be believed (and after that to be obeyed).’

“The greatest legacy a person can leave is a complete surrender of their life to the lordship of Jesus Christ. If we don’t hold out on God, God won’t hold out on us. Take God at His promise as expressed by the psalmist: ‘No good thing (Psalm 84:11) does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.’ And these good things will pass from generation to generation and become great things. God will answer our prayers in the lives of offspring we won’t meet until the Father’s family reunion at the marriage supper of the Lamb. But every prayer we pray, every gift we give, every sacrifice we make, and every step of faith we take is an inheritance left to the next generation. And our prayers live on, long after we die, in their lives.”

What we keep we ultimately lose; what we give away we ultimately get back. -Mark Batterson

Are you leaving an inheritance?

Prayerfully, Paige