|
|
This is the principle of Sowing and Reaping. Every farmer knows this. A farmer has four sacks of seed in his barn and he looks at his barren field. He doesn't start griping -- "There's no crop! I wish there was a crop!" He just goes out and starts planting seed, it reproduces and he gets more than he had when he started. Do four sacks of seed produce four sacks of seed? No. Far more than that. They multiply a hundredfold. No farmer in his right mind would say, "I can't afford to plant, to sow. This is all the seed I've got, only four sacks of it. Therefore I'm just going to hold on to the seed." The only way he's going to get anything out of it is by giving it away. He's got to plant it. If he holds on to it, that's all he's got. But if he gives it away, it multiplies. That is true with your money. It's true with everything in your life. It seems illogical that when you have a need, you need to give. That's why it requires faith. God says "My ways are not your ways." Why did God set it up that way? Because God is a giver. He is the most generous giver in the universe and God wants you to learn to be like Him. "God so loved the world that He gave.." (John 3:16 NIV) God wants you to learn to be generous. If you don't learn to give, if you're stingy, miserly, always worrying about what you've got rather than giving it away, you'll never be like Christ. Jesus said, "Give and it will be given unto you. And the measure you use to give out will be the measure which God uses to give back to you." (Luke 6:38) We like to say, "Lord, when all my needs are met, then I'll give away." God says, "No, when you give away, then all your needs will be met." Why? It requires faith. "God is able to make all grace abound to you so that in all things at all times having all that you need you will abound in every good work." (2 Corinthians 9:8 NIV) If that verse is really true, what does that leave to worry about? It doesn't leave anything to worry about. |