Faithful Giving

"Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be given back to you."

Luke 6:38

Have you ever tried to fit all your leftovers into a little container? You eyeball the leftover dinner, take your best guess at the Tupperware you have in your cabinet, and go for it. you're halfway through filling up the container just to realize you have too much food and too little container. So you take the spoon and start squishing it down into the container. You shake the container and bang it against the counter to get all the food to wiggle down in there; to get all the air bubbles out in hopes to make more room for the food. You finally squeeze on the lid, just to find food spilling down the sides.

If you've never had this happen to you, I'm sure you've cut it pretty close before! I'm sure you have a picture in your head of what this is like.

When you are giving, what measure are you using? Are you sizing up your bank account before you give? Are you choosing to avoid giving because you may not have enough to make ends meet?

We need to remember that God wants to give back to you! Sometimes giving requires a step of faith. God may not be asking you to empty your bank account to a charity or church, but He does want you to give in faith to Him! The dollar amount doesn't matter, but what matters is your heart. God sees your spending, your saving, and your giving. He sees your heart behind each one of those actions, or lack of. He sees when you give your time or material possessions to help another. He sees if you are giving reluctantly or out of a loving heart.

We challenge you today to include God in your financial planning and spending. Include God in the time you are giving to others. In whatever way you give, God will take it and bless it!

When God sees you give, he is joyfully giving back to you! He isn't carefully measuring what you "deserve," He is grabbing a giant spoon and ladling that food into the container, smiling as He squeezes all He can into you and laughs in joy as He watches it spill all over the sides. He loves you and wants to give you abundantly more than you can ever ask or think.

Giving may leave a gap in your life. But God wants to fill it to overflowing! Trust in His heart to give. He will use your giving to bless others and God will bless you as the giver, too!

- Erin