God will not give you what you are not ready for...

I've been working on Wednesday night Bible study for tomorrow, but my mind keeps going back to the one from last week. We looked at 2 Kings 4. The story of the widow and the oil. The lesson that hit home for me was that God will not give you more than you are ready to receive.

Just a week or so ago I was reading an article about the Billy Graham crusades. Did you know they could predict with amazing accuracy how many people would come forward during the invitations at those crusades? And, no, NOT based on how big the venue was. NOT based on how much they advertised. Or how well Billy preached. Or how great the singing was. The factor that correlated almost exactly with the numbers who came forward was the number of counselors they had trained and in place to talk to people who came forward!

This has application all over the place. (Disclaimer - of course there are lots of reasons that God does and doesn't give us stuff. "Not being ready" is simply one possibility. There are other possibilities. This one though I think (based on 2 Kings 4) is worth considering seriously.) Here are some thoughts...

For our church...
... are we ready for visitors? New members? Non Christians who are curious about the faith? If they came, what would we do with them? God won't send us these people if we are not ready. God loves THEM too much for that. Ouch.
... are we ready for more resources? If God blessed us with 5 or 6 new tithers and the kind of income that would involve, what would we do with it? Save it? Or spend it on kingdom stuff? Do we have vision that could incorporate the increase? Ouch.

Just two thoughts on the church front.

For some of my friends...
... is it possible that you have not been given that Christian spouse you've been praying for because God is protecting him/her until you get YOUR act together? (I'm just asking. Sorry I know it hurt.)
... is it possible you didn't get the raise/promotion/job because you haven't prepared yourself?

For me...
... nah, WAY too personal. But I've got some and it doesn't feel too good to have to take a serious look.