What does it mean to give? We all know how to do it because we buy birthday, graduation, wedding and Christmas presents. We find great joy in giving gifts. Why is it then that we hold tightly to what is ours when it comes time to giving? You probably use the same reasoning we did, “we can’t afford to.” We had barely enough to pay our bills. As a matter of a fact, we didn’t have enough to pay our bills. We know what it is like to “have not” and we know what it feels like to lose what you have because you can’t pay for it.
The law of reciprocity says, that if you give, you get. In Matthew 29, Jesus says it this way, “If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for me, you will find it.”
He wasn’t talking about physically losing your life. He was talking about giving it away. We started giving away with the one thing we clung to the most, our money. We dove in and made a decision to tithe even though we “couldn’t afford it”. Since then, we’ve been blessed with not just enough, but more than enough. God responded immediately to our act of obedience and we’ve never stopped giving our first and best to Him.
We also give of our time. You probably have the same excuse we had. Our schedules are “so busy”, we can’t possibly do one more thing. But God tells us in John 15 that there is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
We realized that we had no friends to do life with, so, we dove in a led a group and we began to serve. We gave of the other thing we clung to, our time. We are still busy, but, our hearts are full as we watch our family thrive in the house of God. The joy that comes from giving our lives away is inexplicable. God doesn’t ask us to do these things to take away from us. He uses giving as a way for us to learn to trust Him with what we hold most dear. He uses giving as a vehicle for his favor and blessings to flow to us and through us. He uses giving so that we can really live the life He has given us to it’s fullness.
Today, I want to encourage you to begin to give. Give your life away. Give your finances away. Test God if you must and wait and see how He will pour out His abundance to you.
10Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do,” says the lord of Heaven’s Armies, “I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put me to the test! Malachi 3
