Scripture of the Day:
Acts 10:4
“Cornelius stared at him in fear. “What is it, Lord?” he asked. The angel answered, “Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God.”
Your Giving Captures God’s Attention
Cornelius had been praying. Scripture tells us he was a believer in the God of the Hebrews. He was doing his best to help the Jewish nation and the people he was in charge of.
As a Centurion, he had control, militarily, over that region.
But, he was also a person who believed in prayer. And he was praying to the God of Heaven. Amen!
As part of his prayer life, he would give financially to the support of the local synagogue. And he was not a cheap giver either. He wasn’t just giving a pocket full of quarters in the Salvation Army bucket at Christmas time.
No, he was KNOWN for being a giver. That is why, later, when the people he had sent to get Peter to come back to his home, they testified to his Faith and how much money and support he had already provided to the Jews. They were saying, basically, “This guy is for real.”
But here, I want you to notice, the angel said, “Your PRAYERS have come up as a memorial before God.” (Yes, I know, I misquoted – but stick with me here, I’m making a point).
Cornelius was a praying man. This is what God’s attention. Does God ONLY hear the prayers of the righteous? No. He hears everyone’s prayers!
“Wait a minute Brother Bob, God hears everyone’s prayers?” YES – absolutely!
He heard your prayer when you prayed to receive Jesus as your Savior, didn’t He?
“Well, yes. Of course.”
Well, before you prayed that prayer; before you received Jesus as your Savior, were you righteous or unrighteous? Were you still in your sin when you prayed to God? Of course!
So that is proof, right there, as well as other scriptures, that says God hears the prayers of the righteous and the unrighteous.
So, first and foremost, Cornelius was a man of prayer. THAT is what caught God’s attention.
But, Cornelius went one step further than simply praying. He put money where his mouth was, so to speak.
He became such a giver, that his GIVING also caught God’s attention.
There is a difference between someone who prays because they know they need to pray – and someone who prays and then GIVES SACRIFICIALLY because of the prayers. In addition to the prayers. Who puts FAITH to work by sowing sacrificially into the works of God. Amen!
If you want to get God’s attention, it really requires you to do THREE THINGS.
“Three things, brother Bob? I thought you were talking about prayer and giving here?”
YES…but what needs to come first, as I’ve been teaching for about a month now on this program, is this…
You need to spend time in God’s WORD on a daily basis. For yourself! Not relying on someone else to read the Word for you and tell you what it say (hello! Like so many of you do when you fail to read the Bible or even take the Bible with you to church and only rely on your pastor to tell you what it says… Don’t shout me down when I’m preaching good!)
When you spend time with God – IN HIS WORD – and then spend time TALKING TO GOD in prayer and then you back up all of that with sacrificial FINANCIAL GIVING – with your prayers over the seed you are sowing – you can’t help but GET GOD’s ATTENTION!
Amen!
And we see that is what happened right here with Cornelius.
What was the result? The first gentile convert to Christianity! Praise God!
And it did not just bless Cornelius and him alone. It says his “whole house, family, friends and servants”...
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