#1: Give

“…give, and it will be given to you.  Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put in your lap.  For with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.”  Luke 6:38

Searching back through my 23 years of life, the biggest rushes I can remember have come from when I’ve given something away.  ‘It’s more blessed to give than receive.’  This is true in the literal sense, but you can only taste the blessing when you take the risk and give.  The more I give, the more Jesus gives me.  And He always gives way way more than I ever gave, and not in a way I’d expect—it’s better than I could have hoped for.

Greed creeps in like a roach.   When I break the habit of regularly giving things away, I’m leaving my front door wide open to all sorts of nastiness wanting to get in.  But Jesus’ power is better and brighter than sin.  When I give, greed is defeated—banished from the house.

I wonder if the Lord asks us to give so we can interweave our lives together with other people and build our trust in Him through the gap.

2 Corinthians 8 talks about the Macedonians, who were in ‘extreme poverty’ and yet gave Paul way beyond their means, and begged him ‘earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints.’  Later it says ‘they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to [Paul’s group].’  Radical.  

Let’s be a family who gives radically to other people, and even more radically to the Lord.  Let’s give every ounce of ourselves to Jesus.  Wouldn’t that be a great way to live?