“Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full — pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.” (Luke 6:38 NLT, second edition)
Generosity determines the blessings in your life.
Proverbs 22:9 says, “Blessed are those who are generous” (NLT, second edition). I’ve seen that time after time in my own life and in the lives of others.
Tom Holladay, a pastor at Saddleback Church, says that the time he and his wife saw most in their married life how God blesses them through generosity was when they lost it all. Years ago a levy near their house broke, and nine feet of water flooded their house. Everything was lost. All they had left was the car they were driving and the clothes on their backs.
Tom says: “We had more than tithed all of our lives. I’m a pastor. I wasn’t going to challenge other people to follow Jesus in a way that I wasn’t going to follow Jesus. So why would God let that happen to us?
“Over the several months after our house flooded, we saw God bless our lives in ways that we’d never seen before. Even through their own difficulties, people from all over the country came in and rebuilt our house and supplied all the things we had lost. Before I was on staff as a pastor at Saddleback, people from that church took up an offering for me to buy books for my pastor’s library. Now every time I go look in my library, I see the books bought by Saddleback Church because they loved me before I came. That’s a blessing I wouldn’t have had otherwise. God blesses us in the ups and downs of life through our generosity.”
Jesus said in Luke 6:38, “Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full — pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.”
God’s saying you get to choose. You get to choose how he will bless your life. As you give, you will receive. PLAY today’s audio teaching from Pastor Rick>> Talk It Over
Think of a time in your life when you were in need. Did you think about giving during that time? Why or why not?
How have you seen God bless your life because you were generous?
What is one way you can be more generous today?
Today’s Scripture
“Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust...” (Psalm 40:4, ESV)
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Choose to Trust
Trusting in the Lord is a decision we make just like we would choose anything else in life. You chose what to wear today, you probably chose what you would have for breakfast, and you can choose to trust God today, too! When you choose to trust God, there is a peace that settles on the inside of your heart. There are blessings in store for you when you trust Him.
No matter what you are facing in life today, have faith that God will come through for you. Trust that His Word is always true. In Psalm 32, David calls God his “hiding place.” In other words, not only can you choose to trust God in the midst of your difficulty, you can actually hide in Him and find rest for your soul. When the circumstances of life seem overwhelming, choose to trust that God is ordering your steps. Find security in Him knowing that He’s making your crooked places straight and leading you into the everlasting life He has prepared for you!
A Prayer for Today
“Father, today I choose to put my trust in You. I know that You are a good and faithful God, and I trust that You have my best interest at heart. Help me stay focused on Your goodness today in Jesus’ name. Amen.”
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