Secret!

“Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap. For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.” Luke 6:38

Everyone loves a good secret and this is the juiciest secret of all time. The measure of our generosity to God and to others will be the same measure God will use for us. Although it is not good to give expecting something in return, I believe it is good to test God in this. 

It says in Malachi 3:10, “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.”

I personally know a man, who because of some difficulty with finances, wanted to go abroad to see if he would fare better there. His wife, who did not want to live in another country, suggested he tithe. "Try it! Test the Lord!" she said. He did, and prior to the pandemic, he had a very successful practice. He received over and above what he needed. For myself, I have found that whatever I give to the Lord or to others, comes back to me a hundredfold. Whether it be my time, my talents, my money or my resources. God has been extraordinarily generous with me.

God's economy, the way He does things is so diametrically different from the way the world operates.

Consider the opposite. Don’t give. Keep everything for yourself. Hoard. Don’t help others with what you have. Money, talents, influence, time, use it all for yourself. I am picturing a miser who works hard to enrich himself, not thinking of his coworkers, the man outside his gate, a friend who is sick in the hospital. 

He will be exactly like the Dead Sea or the Salt Sea or the Devil’s Sea as it is sometimes called. The Jordan river empties into it but there is no outlet. Because it is landlocked, the water evaporates and leaves behind massive amounts of salt, making it so dense that people can float on top of it. No plants, algae or animals survive in this brackish water but at the very bottom there are microbial fungi and bacteria. This is what we become if we just receive all the blessings God gives us, and do not share. 

Oh, if only we could remember the secret of generosity every minute, every second of our day! Especially during this time when there is need all around us!