“Give, and it will be given unto you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” Luke 6:38
When I was a couple of years out of high school I worked as a bank teller. I started in the drive thru and worked my way up to head teller in a very busy and visible branch. One of the things they trained us to be ready for was a short change artist. This is someone who would come in and cash a check, or ask for change for a large bill, and then keep asking for different configurations of bills. The goal of this was to confuse the teller and get them to give too much money without realizing it. There are a lot of short change artists in life.
It happens in life when someone tries to work the system at work, getting ahead before they have truly earned it. It can happen in many walks of life. People are always looking for the easy way, the get rich quick type of shortcut. The problem is there is no shortcut in life. Nothing replaces hard work and hustle. Ultimately, people end up receiving whatever they give.
This is a principle found in the Bible. We have talked about it in the "Multiply" series. If you won’t give to God, you are going to lose it anyway. We give to God first so God will bless our gift. What God blesses and we give away will be multiplied. This principle begins first with our willingness to give to God the measure which God has given to us. We cannot hold back from God. We cannot hold back our heart, our time, our prayers, our talents, or our resources. God seeks all of us, everything we have, and to be surrendered to God’s will. Only when this happens will we truly receive all that God has in store for us.
It’s a little like what I experienced in banking. If you didn’t deposit a little bit of your paycheck in a savings, money market, or CD account you didn’t earn any interest income. If you kept it all, it was all you had. God asks for us to give back to God so that God will multiply our gifts. When we give with pure motivations, trusting God, we cannot out-give God! God will bless us abundantly and exceedingly beyond our wildest imagination. I do not mean financially. I mean in relationship with Christ and in eternity with God.
I look forward to sharing with you about this age old wisdom this Sunday. It is my prayer that we will all be generous givers, asking God to bless and multiply what we give. May God be glorified in all our life as we give our prayers, our presence, our gifts, our service, and our witness to the One who gives us everything.