No 31
(Give and you will receive)
“He that watereth shall be watered also himself.” Proverbs 11:25
In this passage, we are taught a great lesson that to get, we
must give; that to accumulate, we must scatter; that to make ourselves happy,
we must make others happy; and that in order to become spiritually vigorous, we
must seek the spiritual good of others. In watering others, we are ourselves
watered.
How? Our efforts to be useful bring out our powers for
usefulness. We all have hidden talents and dormant faculties which are brought
to light by exercise; just like muscles. Our strength for labour is hidden even
from ourselves sometimes and only until we go and fight the Lord’s battles or
to climb the mountains of difficulty, do we discover it. We often find that in teaching others, we
gain instruction for ourselves. Oh, what gracious lessons some of us have learned by teaching!
We went to teach the Bible and we came away taught. When we speak with
saints, we are taught the way of God more perfectly for ourselves
and we get a deeper insight into divine truth; so that watering others makes us
humble.
We discover how much grace there is where we had not looked for
it. Our own comfort is also increased by our working for others. We endeavour
to cheer them and the consolation gladdens our own heart. Like the two men in the snow – one rubbed the
other’s limbs to keep him from dying and in doing so,
he kept his own blood in circulation saving his own life. The poor widow of
Sarepta gave all her supply for the prophet’s wants and from that day on, she
never again knew what want was. The Bible says in 1 Kings