How God Gave Me More When I Gave To Others— Scripture Reflection #044
2 Corinthians 9:7-8 (New Living Translation)
7 You must each decide in your heart how much to give. And don’t give reluctantly or in response to pressure. “For God loves a person who gives cheerfully.” 8 And God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others.
If there is one thing that I have learned in my life, it is that God is faithful to provide. I have also learned that He loves to give to those who give to others.
I experienced God’s generosity firsthand when I gave some food to a man on the street who seemed to be in need. I had just finished grocery shopping and was walking home when I crossed paths with this man. Realizing that I had an opportunity to look out for him, I took a loaf of bread out of my grocery bag and placed it among his things.
A few weeks later, I was competing in a track and field meet, and the team had leftover food from the competition. There were snacks, fruits, drinks, and sandwich-making ingredients all leftover and likely to be thrown away. The coaches gave me all the leftover loaves of bread from the sandwich ingredients, and when I got home, all that bread couldn’t even fit in my freezer!
I recognized that God was filling up my storehouses to overflowing in response to my generosity; that is how God gave me more when I gave to others. And the funny thing is, because I was given so much bread, I got the chance to give it away again because there was just too much for me to eat by myself. I believe that this is the model of generosity that God wants us to follow. When we give generously and cheerfully, He gives back to us in abundance, which then allows us to give even more away, creating a cycle of generous giving.
In Luke 6:38, Jesus emphasizes this model by promising that when we give, our gift will be returned to us, multiplied.
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.”
Further, in Malachi 3:10, we see God calling us to actually test Him with our generosity. He tells us that if we give to Him, He will open the windows of heaven, and we will not have enough space to take all the blessings He will pour out on us.
10 “Bring 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!”
The Calling: Look for ways to give to others today. Give with generosity, good cheer, and faith, knowing that God wants to provide for you in even bigger ways so that you can keep looking after the needs of others.
