Give, And It Shall Be Given; Luke 6:38

"Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and runnig over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again."

     Jesus told His disciples, "Freely you have received, freely give" (Matt. 10:8b). Many times we feel as though if we were to give that we would then be lacking something. So we hold back, giving out of our abundance but rarely sacrificially. But the truth of the matter is, that when we give we are blessed! We don't lack because we give. Jesus wants us to share, to be generous, even to give sacrificially (beyond our means) in order to bless others in need. He has promised us that He will provide for all our needs and that we shall not lack any good thing. He has freely given us all that we have, why should we hold back from giving to others who are in need?
     "Perhaps," you say, "God did not provide for those people over there and that is why they are in need. Why should I give them anything?" You may be the way by which God chooses to provide for those people. Not only are they being blessed, but you yourself are being blessed in that you are letting go of material possessions to help people, God's creation, and you are being moreso conformed into the likeness of Christ, for He gave all He had for us, though we could repay Him nothing.

     Jesus Himself declared that with the same measure we use to give, what we are given will be measured to us. That means if we are very "conservative" in our giving that we will be given to conservatively. If we are hardly willing to share with others, others will be hardly willing to share with us. I also believe that this applies to our relationship with God as well. He wants to bless us. He wants to give to us abundantly and exceedingly good gifts. But if we are unwilling to give to those around us, being greedy and arrogant, I think that He will withhold those blessings from us in order to teach us to be more giving.
     If we are prone to giving, Jesus says that so shall men give into our bosoms. Again, I believe that if we are willing to share what God has blessed us with that He will bless us moreso. In giving we are not losing anything, but gaining abundant blessing from God. This is not to say we should give in order to be blessed-- for God knows our hearts and our motives, and He will not reward us for trying to swindle blessings. It is not what we are giving (as in the dollar amount or the size), but the cost of what we are giving-- what is it costing you to give what you are giving? Jesus said that the widow who put in two pennies was putting in more than the Pharisees who put in great amounts of riches. The widow had put in all that she had, whereas the Pharisees put in what they could spare out of their abundant wealth. The whole point is to give liberally, not taking concern for what you have, but for the well-being of others!