Grace For The Journey

The Bible says in Proverbs 11:25, “A generous soul will be made rich; And he who waters will also be watered himself.”

In God’s eternal economy, there is a fixed law for the redeemed:

You cannot give to others without receiving yourself.

This is an encouraging biblical truth.  Think about that promise for a minute – a generous person will indeed prosper, and whoever refreshes others will be refreshed.

You have His Word on it!

Jesus said In Luke 6:38, “Give, and it will be given to 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.”

Now, we should never give, serve, and help others because of what we will receive in return.  We already have everything because we have Jesus.  Yet, the biblical principle stands firm – you simply cannot give without getting.  I like to call it “The Believer’s Boomerang,” because the gift keeps coming back to the hand that released it.

Before we go on, I must make one thing perfectly clear:

I am not speaking about the so-called “prosperity gospel,”

which teaches that it is always the will of God to prosper His people with both financial and physical blessings in response to their financial donations, visualization, and positive confessions.  In a word, this kind of teaching is IDOLATRY; the believer would be using God to reach a desired goal or end.

It is a fact, God does proper His people with countless blessings – financial, physical, and spiritual – but He is never obligated to do so.  God’s blessing is never a result of His people using God to bring about a desired blessing.  This would be like putting God on a leash and leading Him where we want Him to go.  It would be binding the conscience of God and manipulating Him to do what you want Him to do for you. This thinking is entirely unbiblical and utterly wrong!

Here is what the above verse is talking about.  When we give, serve, and help, simply because of the sheer joy of giving, serving, and helping – to love others because God first loved us – the Lord will return to us blessings multiplied.  You cannot give without getting in return . . . when you are giving for the right reasons.  And do you know who it is that gives for the right reasons?

It is those people who, like the apostle Paul,

Know what they already have been given in Christ!

The Bible says in Ephesians 1:3, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.”

No finite mind could ever begin to comprehend the depths of the truth of those words. God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing because we are in Christ.  Unlike our temporal blessings, which we will one day leave behind, these spiritual blessings will stay with us throughout eternity: our forgiveness . . . our acceptance . . . our adoption . . . our divine dwelling place in heaven.  I could write an entire article about those blessings which will never fade away.

One final point on The Believer’s Boomerang: At the deepest level, the simple act of giving IS the greatest blessing, because in that act of selfless giving, we are most like our Lord.

This is God Word … This is Grace for your Journey

… Rest And Rejoice In The Wonderful Truth!

Pastor Terry

Ephesians 4:7 – “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.”

Hebrews 4:16 – “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”