Snapshots
Biblical Truth
OF
IT'S BETTER TO GIVE THAN RECEIVE
BIBLE REFERENCES:
Malachi 3:10 (LivBible) “’Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so that there will be food enough in my Temple; if you do, I will open up the windows of heaven for you and pour out a blessing so great you won’t have room enough to take it in! Try it! Let me prove it to you! Your crops will be large, for I will guard them from insects and plagues. Your grapes won’t shrivel away before they ripen,’ Says the Lord of Hosts.”
Matthew 6:19-34 (LivBible) “Don’t store up treasures here on earth where they can erode away or may be stolen. Store them in heaven where they will never lose their value, and are safe from thieves. …. So my counsel is: Don’t worry about things – food, drink, and clothes. For you already have life and a body – and they are far more important than what to eat and wear. …. So don’t be anxious about tomorrow. God will take care of your tomorrow too. Live one day at a time.”
Luke 6:38 (LivBible) “For if you give, you will get! Your gift will return to you in full and overflowing measure, pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, and running over. Whatever measure you use to give – large or small – will be used to measure what is given back to you.”
2 Corinthians 8:7, 8 (NIV) “But just as you excel in everything – in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in your love for us – see that you also excel in this grace of giving.”
APPLICATION:
At the very core of Christianity is the spirit of giving. After all, Jesus Christ gave everything for us!
The early church provides us with an excellent example of how we are to live the abundant Christian life. The New Testament Book of Acts (Chapter 4 Verse 32) tells us that the believers were of one heart and mind in the act of giving and sharing. As a result there was no needy found among them.
Matthew, Chapter 6 (see above) gives us a simple model for living that abundant Christian life exemplified by the early church. The model simply instructs us to invest in God’s kingdom first and then to trust God for everything else (including the wisdom to make good choices with what we have left).
I can already hear the financial wizards of our day scoffing at such a simplistic mind set and economic plan. “Why, you need sound investments, you need to build your portfolios, you need diversified investments in the stock market, you need a stockpile of cash and reserves for your retirement or that ‘rainy day’!” Yet, the simple words of Matthew and the promises of Malachi 3:10 remain before us.
Just what are you going to put your faith and trust in? Will it be your accumulated wealth? Well, that can be gone tomorrow! Just yesterday the stock market plunged 635 points. How is that for security?
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A PRAYER
“God, help me to be less obsessed with the accumulation of wealth for myself. Instead, give me that solid faith and trust in you so that I can become a cheerful giver of blessings to someone else.”
SNAPSHOT:
