| “What hast thou that thou didst not receive?” It is “God … who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; that they may do good, that they may be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate; laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.” Let us never think in connection with our giving that when we give a certain portion or percentage, then what remains is ours to do with as we will. The Lord not only looks at what we give, but He looks also at what we keep, and we are responsible to Him for this also. Most Christians know little about sacrificial giving to the Lord’s work, and thus we miss much blessing. The Macedonian believers were concerned about “distributing to the necessity of saints,” and “in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality,” and that because they “first gave their own selves to the Lord.” Let us remember that “he which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.” Let us also “remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.” |
