Monday... This loan will be paid in full.

Have you found it hard to pay back your loans? Christmas is a time that we so much want to give but we just don't have enough so we find it easy to use those credit cards or find someone who will give us a loan but then comes the new year and we have to pay them back and it is so hard. And in turn, it is usually an impossible time for us to give a loan, isn't it? But God is wanting us to give Him a loan?

And that is a loan that we really want to give, isn't it? Now, it's not that He needs what we have but He knows others that do, so when we are giving to them we are in fact giving a loan to God. And this is the perfect time to do it.

Here is how Proverbs 19:17 (MSG) puts it. It says, "Mercy to the needy is a loan to God, and God pays back those loans in full." And that is a loan we really do want and need to give.

But we in our self-centered focus and our high opinions of what we think tend to want to give judgement and criticism more than mercy. It is not natural for us to give mercy so we need to go to God and get a loan from Him. And that is a loan that He will pay in full because He knows that we also really, really do and will need mercy.

Verse 17 in the Amplified Bible says, "He who is gracious and lends a hand to the poor lends to the Lord, and the Lord will repay him for His good deeds." So many need grace and a helping hand and in turn so do we.

Now that is a tremendous place to give a loan to and the return is unbelievable. And that is a loan that He knows we need to give. It really is.

This is the time of the year that we celebrate the greatest gift even given and if this is what He wants then we need to give it. Again, "Mercy to the needy is a loan to God, and God pays back those loans in full." Yes, yes! #todaysbeginning

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Thursday... Maybe we need this word today.

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