Give More, You Get More
When you give more, you get more? This paradox is a principle that has been taught in the church, yet a common misconception is that giving more will somehow diminish what you already have. However, it does the very opposite. There is beauty in giving and sacrificing and the greatest example that we have of this can be taken from Jesus. He paid the ultimate price and wiped away our sinful debt. What did He gain? Fellowship and a relationship with us, which He and the Father deemed was more important than His precious life.
Luke 6:38 says:
“Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”
Jesus promises us that when you give, it will be given back to you. We see this promise being fulfilled in scripture even before Jesus spoke these words. In 1 Kings 17:7-16, Elijah approaches the widow of Zarephath during a drought and asks her to provide food for him. She was poor and only had a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug left to sustain her, until she and son would eventually die of hunger. However, she trusted in God and provided for the prophet. After this sacrifice, neither the jar of flour was nor the jug of oil became empty. This widow gave all that she had but she gained more than she had ever imagined.
When God gives back to His people, He doesn’t hold back, in the text it says that He gives back with “good measure” and it’ll be “running over.” However, it is essential for us to realise that we cannot give a little and expect a lot from God. God loves a cheerful giver (2 Corinthians 9:7) and as He is God, He knows our hearts. In the Bible, we are also told that if we sow sparingly, we will reap sparingly, but if we sow abundantly, we will reap abundantly (2 Corinthians 9:6).
The principle of giving more to get more doesn’t only apply to financial giving. Jesus says that “whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for Me will find it” (Matthew 16:25). When Jesus said this, He was saying to the disciples (and us) that He wanted us to be willing to give up our earthly existence for Him and in return we would gain eternal life and salvation. This is in comparison to us cherishing our earthly lives which, without sounding morbid, do not measure up to eternity. Almost every Christian has asked themselves if it’s really worth it to follow Christ and give up our comfortable, sinful lifestyles? The answer is: it is. Whatever you give up and lose on earth, you will be rewarded for it in heaven and that’s where it really counts because heaven is eternal.
It’s not easy to give, it takes a lot of faith and selflessness, however, God is faithful and He is the maker of the universe, which means that He has an unlimited amount of resources. God doesn’t actually need our money or our time, because He is God and He would be able to source it elsewhere. He asks us to give because He wants to teach us about sacrifice and to be willing to sacrifice those things that we hold so dearly onto, the beauty of this is that He will always give it back to us and will always sustain us.
Let Us Run With Endurance
The marathon, an unforgiving test of endurance as you traverse the uneven terrain spanning a seemingly endless perimeter. Some make it their life goal, an accomplishment like no other, training to face the mammoth task with precision engineered nutrition, sleep and training. The day arrives and their bodies are primed, their muscle fibres twitching as they prepare to emerge victorious in the war that will almost certainly ensue. It’s the calm before the storm.
Hebrews 12:1
12 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us'
Many of us have attempted to run the race of enduring faith as if it were a sprint, only to find ourselves weak, weary and overcome with a feeling of fatigue. Tempted to give up, to perhaps return to the sin which so easily ensnares us. This scripture serves not only to remind us of the method we must adopt, but also to instruct us of the preparations we must make in order to finish the race. We must position ourselves as athletes of a different kind, harnessing the word of God as our spiritual food (Jeremiah 15:16) and our prayer a form of training. Just as marathon runners turn to the pioneers in sportswear technology in order to run their race in the most aerodynamic, weight saving clothing. We must turn to God and lay aside every weight of sin that inhibits our steps toward Jesus.
We can find hope in the knowledge that although each step towards God may feel as if it brings new and uncomfortable uncertainties. He has already gone before us and will never leave us nor forsake us (Deuteronomy 31:8) for God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved (John 3:17).
Written by Daniel Campbell
Out Of The Boat
We all know the story of how Jesus walked on water and how Peter briefly walked on water as well, but doubted and began to sink until Jesus reached out to save Him. There is much to learn from this story and from Peter and Jesus’ actions.
Matthew 14:22-36:
“22 Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. 23 And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, 24 but the boat by this time was a long way from the land, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them. 25 And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. 26 But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, “It is a ghost!” and they cried out in fear. 27 But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.”
28 And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.”29 He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.” 31 Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” 32 And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. 33 And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”
Jesus walking on water is connected to an earlier episode in the gospel in which He calmed the storm (Matthew 8:18-34). The “water” and the “storm” in these instances could be interpreted as trying times or a period of uncertainty. In both instances, Jesus easily overcomes the water and the storm and rescues the disciples. He proves Himself to be Lord of the wind, waves, water and the sea; all of which made the disciples anxious. Peter stepped out of the boat because, in that moment, He trusted Jesus with his life but it was only when he noticed the wind around him that he began to sink. Many times when we trust Jesus with our lives, our relationships, our finances, our jobs etc. we “walk on water” and do miraculous things but when we notice the wind and take our eyes off Jesus, for example, by doubting God, that is when we begin to sink.
What’s more notable about this is that the disciples had just witnessed Jesus feeding the five thousand and other miracles before that therefore, they knew what He was capable of. Yet in both instances, they still doubted Him and had little faith even though they knew that He could easily rescue them in the twinkling of an eye. We are, somewhat, a representation of the disciples. We have witnessed the miracles of Jesus in our lives, our families’ lives, yet when the storm comes and we notice “the wind” around us, we forget everything that Jesus has done and begin to panic and sink. However, the beauty of Jesus, our Saviour is that He is exactly that: A Saviour. When Peter began to sink, he cried out to Jesus, “Lord, save me,” and Jesus immediately did exactly that. This echoes Romans 10:13, where Paul writes “for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Peter’s attempt to walk on water shouldn’t be wholly viewed as a failure because even in his fear, he still cried out to the Lord. He knew that Jesus was the only one who could save him – not the other disciples. When hard times approach, let your first instinct be to call out to Jesus to save you. In verse 32, when Jesus and Peter got into the boat, the wind immediately ceased, which shows us that when Jesus gets in “our boats” i.e. our lives, the storms of life will calm and we can worship him like the disciples did. Although, we should always have faith, we are human and there will be times when we will lack faith and begin to sink, but let us be encouraged by the fact that all we have to do is call upon His name and He will save us.