Daily Devotional - Blessings

I subscribe to the Upper Room's daily devotional online.

Today's message was about abundant blessings, storing up treasures, and giving one's first-fruits to the Lord.

I must reflect... I too have been blessed abundantly. My life-goal is "To never be discontent because of something that I do not or cannot have." God has been so good to us and I am so grateful. First-fruits may be considered tithing one's wages, time, and perhaps even one's talent.

In my recent readings of 1 Samuel, I see that Hannah was blessed with a child and she actually devotes him to the Lord (chapter 1 vs 28). At first I'm thinking that's a little extreme, but how faithful a woman she must have been to finally get this blessing that she waited so long for, and then after he's weaned she basically lets him go... for God's purpose. There are lots of ins and outs of this passage, but there is a point that I'd like to make: When we are obedient and faithful, the blessings in return are abundant. In this case, she was blessed with a number of additional children AND her son grows up to be an influential figure of his time. In our own lives, we have too have seen such return blessings over and over and over.

I'll write more on those another time.