LOVE MULTIPLICATION

I could have made it big, but my numbers sense hardly made it to "Pass", so my destined-for-greatness dream fizzled.

You see, when I was growing up and one-two-three marched to thousands, I developed a hate affair with numbers.


Grade 3 Math felt like helplessly surrendering to my executioner in a torture chamber. When Ms Z glared with her furrowed brows, flared nostrils and beat-box histrionics, I just wanted to run for my life. Why, even her eraser flew into space, reducing her naughtier pupils into a whimper!

Could that be the reason why my mind blanks at the mention of numbers? All in all, I went past elementary and high school math by the skin of my teeth, just like playing a game of Russian roulette. Pass or fail? Fail or pass?

I did manage to memorize my multiplication table, my only saving grace. I could have ended in repeat row were it not for the multiplication table!

I've lately been appreciating the multiplication table in a different light. And whether mostly right-brained, math-averse Yay can compute it or not, she's here to testify that God desires multiplication for you and me. It's a powerful concept that can totally turn your life around, as it has changed mine.

For the past few weeks, Pastor Paul Chase has been teaching us the principle of "seed, time and harvest" and its implications. "It's one of the laws operating in nature and in every area of our lives," he says.
 
God created everything just once---man and woman, animals, trees and every living creature. Generations after them replicated by multiplication, each species reproducing exponentially after its kind.  

Imagine the tiny mustard seed. Within that seed is a tree with more seeds to multiply themselves into an infinite number of trees. Mustard trees all, whose seeds are prized for their medicinal and culinary benefits.

The principle does not only apply to people and animals and trees.

Jesus says in Luke 6:38: "Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over..."

I've proven God's multiplication principle when my husband and I learned to give our tithe, a concept which we initially struggled with. But as we grew in our faith, we relented.

Malachi 3:10: "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it."

Yay's arithmetic computed "deficit" if we tithed. We wrote that first check anyway, sealed it with a bye-bye kiss, but relieved and at peace that we finally obeyed.

The rest is history---His Story. It was not necessarily "bye-bye" but a welcome party. His Story, His Word which took residence in our hearts, welcomed promotion after promotion into our laps, bringing with them blessings we didn't imagine we could have.

Too, when God pours out His blessings, you can be sure that money is just a fraction. You see, He's the El Shaddai, our God who's more than enough. Once Jesus becomes our Lord---but first and foremost Savior---peace, joy, grace, favor, mercy, contentment, healing, wisdom, etc., etc., become part of our blessings-filled terrain.

But the key is in dying. John 12:24: "I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds." 

Dying to self makes us alive in Christ, enabling us to act upon His promises---making us triumph even in the most dreadful situations. Though we walk through the valley of darkness, we fear no evil. For which power of darkness can come against the light of lights and the Lord of Lords?

So what seed will you plant today? Harsh words? Get harsh words in return. Unkindness? Reap unkindness then. And sometimes we wonder why some people don't want to be around us!


But try serving compassion, season your words with grace, dash it with a little helping hand, top that with a dessert of prayer; and those around you will naturally want to eat at your table, because Christ is seated there. 

God is in the business of multiplication! Multiply prayers and they will avail much. Multiply your time with God, and you'll see His character in you multiplied. Desire His will and see Him use you in things you've not even imagined yourself doing.

Oh, by the way, don't forget about subtraction. Grow proud and you'll get the red ink. Demerits---in the form of humbling experiences and negative consequences, we get a lot of these too on a daily basis.

Thank God for His grace too to start all over again! Jesus picks us up every time we stumble. He wants us all to receive our graduation certificate.

Really, the numbers business is much more exciting than third grade math. My goodness, my mind didn't go blank this time! I'm free to multiply!