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I am more convinced than ever, that one of the greatest gifts that God gives us is friendships. And the amazing thing is that it is a gift that cost us nothing. Okay, maybe it costs us time, but that is all. However, in a real good friendship you don’t mind spending time with that other person. In fact, it seems that when you walk away from spending time with certain people, you actually take away more than what you gave.

I recently had this kind of experience that I would like to share with you. This past January I was asked to guide a Bible study that was created for “Busy Ladies”. It met for six weeks and lasted only 1 ½ hour each time, so that these busy ladies would not feel overwhelmed.

Teaching Bible studies is always something I have enjoyed, but hostessing a study has always been somewhat of a chore for me. When I was asked if I would be willing to take on this adventure, I was told that I would not have to hostess the study, due to another lady volunteering to do this task. I never met the girl who volunteered to be the hostess before, but I immediately was relieved to hear that welcoming the guests into the home and providing a light refreshment was going to be "her baby". As I watched her “do her thing”, each Tuesday night I was impressed that she could pull this off as smoothly as she did.

February 12th was to be our final meeting and we decided to forego the regular study format and have a party instead. Since it was two days before Valentine’s Day, we decided to throw a party for Jesus. After all, He is the One Who captured our hearts during the previous five weeks that we gathered. What could be more appropriate?

This evening ended up being a real highlight of our study, as each girl communicated why they had come to the study, what they had learned, and most importantly— what they will do with Jesus after the study ended. Would they want to continue in this relationship that some of them started for the first time? Or would they walk away, never to look back. For after all, these ladies are very busy ladies with lots of other things to worry about in life.

My heart could barely take in all that was being shared that night. Each girl who attended communicated in their own way, that they desired to continue taking steps toward getting to know Jesus better. That is why now, we will meet again in May for a three week study. They are hungry to get to know Jesus more fully, and what better way, than in a small group of like-minded ladies.

After our evening was done, my hostess came up to me and said, “You know… we thought we were the ones to offer the blessing, and instead we are the ones who were blessed”. I could not have said it any better. I just stood there nodding in agreement. I definitely was taking away more, than what I had given.

Isn’t that how God works? You give Him a little thumb full, and He in turn gives you a whole bushel basket. There I stood that night with what seemed like 7x the blessings. In fact my blessings even have names. They are: Stephanie, Arlene, Nancy, Jen, Mary, Ori, and Leanne.

Even though the study has ended Jen has asked to continue to meet weekly because this girl just cannot get enough of Jesus. As we talked last Tuesday night at Panera’s, she described to me how the (spiritual) light had popped on for her. I was amazed at the things that she already knew for just committing her life to Christ three weeks earlier. I asked her how she knew all of this already, and she told me she spends lots of time in The Word. Since she has two small children, and one with special needs, I knew that this took a lot of sacrifice on her part. But I am confident she will reap the benefits from this time spent.

Where are you at today? Are you so busy that you rarely take time to talk to God, or open your Bible, or attend a Bible study? Do you find every excuse in the book, for not wanting to spend time with God? My dear friends, if you answered “yes” to these questions, may I urge you to re-think the whole thing. You may be missing out on the greatest adventure of a lifetime. Remember you must first be willing to make the deposit before you are entitled to a withdrawal.

In the banking world you are only allowed to withdrawal as much as you deposit. However, in God’s world you are allowed to withdrawal MORE than you deposit. In fact, sometimes—7 times more!

Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly,

And whoever sows generously will also reap generously.

2 Corinthians 9:6

"The Way" from Kevin Pauley

Milque-Toast Prayers