By Karen Dalton
When Giving Means More Than Just An Act (A Revelation of True Giving)
These are some of the few treasures I gained from my life in the field of blessing and prosperity, these are lessons that the Lord taught me about GIVING– all are encrypted in His words:
1. You don’t need to have much or excess money to help. GIVING out of need is true GIVING.
True generosity doesn’t come from our excess; it comes from sacrificial hearts.
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Mark 12:41-44
The Widow’s Offering
41 Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts.
42 But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents.
43 Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said,
“Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others.
44 They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”
2. You must not delay GIVING.
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Proverbs 3:28
Do not tell your neighbor, “Come back tomorrow and I will provide”—when you already have the means.
Exodus 22:29a
“You must not hold anything back when you give me offerings from your crops and your wine.
3. You must GIVE cheerfully. GIVING should not be a burden.
God’s ultimate desire is that we would give happily. He doesn’t want us to have to give out of obligation or coercion. He wants to bless his children. Not so that we can live in complete comfort and luxury, but so that we can be even more generous—abounding in every good work.
👇2 Corinthians 9:6-7
Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
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2 CORINTHIANS 8:12–1
For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have. For I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but that as a matter of fairness your abundance at the present time should supply their need, so that their abundance may supply your need, that there may be fairness. As it is written, “Whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack.”
4. True riches and investments are stored in heaven and not on earth. GIVING’s motives have to be sanctified in the heart of the GIVER.
Anything stored on earth can be stolen and anything you hold important for your own gain will be lost.
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Matthew 6:19–21
Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
5. GIVING is showing you are a follower of Christ by fulfilling His law.
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1 JOHN 2:5–6,
By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.
GALATIANS 6:2
Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
6. GIVING is meaningful to those who are truly in need.
– there are people who use others’ generosity in order to gain profit for themselves. They take away the Lord’s dealing in their life in the aspect of suffering and sacrificial offering. They give to benefit, they ask help to escape from their sacrifice. This is not what God ordained us. As givers, we need to ask the Lord to lead us to those people who are worthy to receive His blessings and be wise enough to discern that not all people has good motives when they ask for help. As recipients of God’s generosity, we must show impartial generosity towards each other.
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LEVITICUS 25:35–37
If your brother becomes poor and cannot maintain himself with you, you shall support him as though he were a stranger and a sojourner, and he shall live with you.
Take no interest from him or profit, but fear your God, that your brother may live beside you. You shall not lend him your money at interest, nor give him your food for profit. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God.
7. There is promise in GIVING.
GOD’S PROMISE TO THE GENEROUS
PSALM 41:1–3
Blessed is the one who considers the poor!
In the day of trouble the Lord delivers him;
the Lord protects him and keeps him alive;
he is called blessed in the land;
you do not give him up to the will of his enemies.
The Lord sustains him on his sickbed;
in his illness you restore him to full health.
PROVERBS 11:24–25
One gives freely, yet grows all the richer;
another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want.
Whoever brings blessing will be enriched,
and one who waters will himself be watered.
8. Altruistic generosity requires a certain amount of faith. GIVING requires faith.
PROVERBS 19:17
Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed.
9.There is blessing in GIVING for God loves to keep track and record our generosity.
MATTHEW 10:42
And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.
PROVERBS 22:9
Whoever has a bountiful eye will be blessed, for he shares his bread with the poor.
10. GIVING is LOVING. It is an expression of love. If God did not demonstrate the real reason behind giving (love), we might not have the greatest gift ( Salvation).
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JOHN 3:16
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
1 Corinthians 13:1-3
If I speak in the tongues [1] of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.1 If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, [2] but have not love, I gain nothing.
—–👇REMEMBER THIS 👇—-
Matthew 25:40
40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
