The Bible provides such practical wisdom for success in every day life. Counting your blessings is not only a good habit for staying thankful to God, it is a yearly Biblical pattern for multiplying your fruitfulness by ADDING a window of increase into your thought life.

Here is how this pattern works.

Just like God uses multiplying the love between a husband and wife to add new children to a growing family, God loves multiplying your effectiveness by adding opportunities for you to trust Him to meet you at every appointed time of your journey through life.

Our Father in Heaven is a creative genius! He loves to inspire us with ideas, give us creative solutions to problems and help us find new pathways to follow Him regularly.

The rhythm of working six days and resting on the seventh is actually a binary concept. We step, then He steps. We step, then He steps. Our step takes 144 hours and His step takes 24 hours. We do what we want for 144 hours and He asks us to trust Him to keep our life going while we rest for 24 hours. This is NOT equality, it is obedience – which God values more than sacrifice! Honoring God is trusting Him.

The Feast of Weeks

God asks us to count seven weeks of seven after Passover to prepare to bring the FIRST FRUITS OFFERING on the 50th day. Jewish people also believe this is the day the LAW (the Ten Commandments) was given to Moses by God. This ‘Feast of Weeks’ is a Biblical Holiday thanking God for giving the ‘Words of Life.’ That is a beautiful time to celebrate God giving His people – People of the Book – the Covenant promise. In that promised Covenant, we are commanded to give gifts to God.

Why do we give to God?

Because where you invest your time, talents, and finances show what you value. What you value shows the world what you believe. Believing God is the one who makes things grow – INCREASE – is paramount to believing He cares about your life and can make YOU grow. No one would plant a screwdriver and expect it to grow another screwdriver – would they? Giving your harvest to God, to make another harvest – in fact a bumper crop is what the Feast of FIRST FRUITS is all about. He asks us to give a special offering during this season – specifically on June 7, 8, and 9 – to thank Him and watch Him GROW something extra special in your life. In fact, your super abundant increase depends on it.

Here is how you can figure out where your FIRST FRUITS offering is so you sow it wisely:

1. Be on the lookout for ‘firsts’ you can give to God. Here is how I do that: if I try a new recipe for muffins, I make sure I make enough to give a batch to my neighbor. When my husband got a raise at work, beyond giving a larger tithe, we made sure to give a special ‘first fruits’ offering that week to thank God for the increase!

2. Be on the lookout for ‘surprises’ that God suddenly manifests that can provide feed for an unexpected need. When a refund for mortgage insurance popped up, we sowed it back into the mortgage and gave a special offering beyond the tithe to say thank you. When we sold the house, we tithed to our house of worship and gave a special offering to the Rabbi’s retreat fund to thank God.

3. Be creative about giving to ‘be a blessing’ to someone else. The day I finished writing my testimony book, I bought a song from a local songwriter and donated the song to the Bible Society for our first worship album someday. I did that to thank God for inspiring me and I prayed it would inspire her to write more music, too.

4. Be intentional about the place where you give. When the Bible Society was blessed with a donation to the building fund, we wrote a check to our founding synagogue to help them grow, too!

5. Be resounding in your giving. When Jews For Jesus gave us our first Board member, I sowed my daughter’s singing gift into their new music ministry project the following year. When the Union of Messianic Congregations and Synagogues sowed into my son’s education on a trip to Israel, I provided my Children’s curriculum for their entire conference to say thank you. And so on…

Now, here is an idea.

Our TLV Bible Society has been sowing into the cause of Biblical Literacy worldwide by providing our entire Biblical translation for free on over 15 digital platforms. But more importantly, Bibles need to get into the hands of the people who need them! For nearly five years now, we have given away thousands and thousands of TLV Bibles to needy families and prisoners and faith communities across America. In about a week, we will begin our summer tour of giving Bibles away to even more young people – again. Would you please prayerfully consider helping us with the traveling expenses for this wonderful cause?

This year, we really need your help. Our ministry opportunities are growing faster than our resources and that means there is INCREASE OUT THERE SOMEWHERE! We have begun accepting invitations for speaking engagements by faith, and we are trusting that God is touching people’s hearts to make our unified impact even greater this season! We want to give away as many TLV Bibles as possible!

God saved my life with a free Bible and I will never stop wanting to give them away. Forgiveness through the knowledge of our Creator’s love for us is TRULY the only gift that gains more and more value the more you give BIBLES away for free!

Trust God with your increase and we will see the Kingdom grow together!

Love and blessings,
Daniah Greenberg