Yep, Still Zero

The simple rules of math can be verified as this: Five plus five equals ten. Zero plus ten equals ten… and so on. That’s addition. On the other hand, multiplication is this: Five times five equals 25. Zero times 25 equals zero. What!? Zero!? That’s what we all said when we were first taught this, right? In fact, zero multiplied by any number is still zero. A million times zero is… you guessed. Zero.

When we give God of ourselves He can add to our lives, and that’s fantastic, but the greatest blessing is in His multiplication. One seed plus dirt, water, and sun equals, not a certain sum, but a tree producing an infinite amount of fruit for a long, long time. If we put a zero anywhere in this equation, say we don’t factor in water, we get zero. All we have is a seed in the dirt that won’t grow.

We can’t just add Jesus to our lives and expect a harvest. Some people have done that, and He moved for them, but imagine if they just didn’t add Him, but gave Him their life for Him to multiply. Not a one time request, but an ongoing commitment. Our God deals in multiplication too, not just addition. When Jesus asked how many loaves and fishes they had, he blessed it and it multiplied, He didn’t add to them, but multiplied them. There was leftovers. He took of His resources, which is His kingdom and infinite power, and didn’t feed a few but a multitude. His resources go far beyond what we can ever come up with or can imagine. He doesn’t go to the bakery and goes fishing for us, he multiplies what’s given to Him.

We can ask God all we want, but until we give Him something instead of zero, guess what? We get zero. I’m not only talking monetary only, but let’s use it anyway, and say we give God our checkbook. Our credit cards. And watch Him move for us. But we can’t expect Him to move for us when we give Him zero. We just hold our finances behind our back and expect Him to help us. We want to be stronger in our faith yet we don’t give Him or exercise any of the faith we already have. We want Him to solve our problems, yet try to solve them ourselves and get in His way to where He has to back off. Let’s give it to Him and just walk away, and not tell Him how to solve it and let Him do it.

So many today (I have been there too) are wanting God to do something in their lives but aren’t giving Him anything to work with. So how can we expect Him to solve our problems when we still want to be in control of them? He’s saying for us to give Him the basket with our loaves and fishes, which isn’t enough anyway, but we hold on to it and give Him nothing to work with. We want Him to move in our marriages. Our jobs. Our family. Our Spiritual growth. Our emotions. But we don’t pray, except like He’s some kind of Genie in a bottle or a magician that’s supposed to fix things instantly. But what are we really giving to Him? Our wish list? We should be giving Him our basket of all we got for Him to multiply, which is our praises. Our thankfulness. Our time. Our full trust. Our worship…

Blessings!
Elder Steve Smith