The Blessing Of Giving | Daily Devotional by John Eckhardt
THE BIBLE TEACHES a very simple message about being blessed to be a blessing. It is a cyclical law much like sowing and reaping. In Christian circles it has been called the law of the harvest; in the world, karma; and in science, cause and effect: "What goes around comes around." "You get what you pay for." "You get out what you put in." "Whatever you sow, you will reap."
Regardless of what man has tried to label it, this law of giving and receiving originated by the hand of God at the foundation of the world. It is not a hypothesis or theory. It is an ingrained law that applies to life on this earth and in heaven regardless of if we are aware of it or not.
What you put out will be given back to you, and even more, you will receive in proportion to how you give. If you give (or sow) sparingly, you will receive (or reap) sparingly (2 Cor. 9:6).
If you want to receive the blessing of God, you have to be ready to give. You cannot expect to live a blessed life if all you do is receive, receive, receive. You will end up like the Dead Sea—becoming too salty and too toxic to support any kind of life. A blessed Christian is vibrant, fruitful, and able to give and sustain life.
Everything around them is blessed. The spirit of death and staleness does not stay around them very long. Because they are blessed, they give blessing and in turn cause a flow of abundance in the kingdom of God where lack does not exist.
Many churches today say that they have modeled themselves after the New Testament church, but the early church received and responded to the message of giving in a way that many of us today would be reluctant to practice.
In 2 Corinthians 8:14-15, Paul encouraged the Corinthians to continue what they had always done, and that was for those with abundance to give to those who did not have so that no one would go without and that all would be blessed. He called this equality. In Acts 2:44-45 and Acts 4:32-33, it is also called having "all things in common."
There was a living flow of blessings between the members of this church. Those who were blessed gave to those who were in need of a blessing. They did this willingly and cheerfully. (See 2 Corinthians 9:7-15.)
In each of these instances you will see that the supernatural grace of God surrounded and blessed the givers and receivers, so that the giving wasn't a burden and the receivers were blessed enough to become givers as well.
