THE K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
774
God does not ask us to give because He needs our money. God is not poor. Streets in heaven are paved with gold. (Rev. 21:18). God asks us to give so that He can bless us for the giving. Our giving releases God so that He can give to us. The more we give to Him the more He can and will give to us. Some one said “Giving is the same as hand ing God a basket which He fills and passes back to us.” Giving is like put ting a chute ihto our cellar so that God can send down to us from His exhaust less storehouse and mine. God sees to it that if a girl gives anything to Him that it comes back to her a thousand fold. You can’t beat God in giving. Orientals crowd grain in a measure, shake it well, crowd it down, adding more and more until the measure is running over. If we give God all He wants of .us He returns to us all that we can hold. God looks at the size of the heart of the giver and not at the size of the gift. The poor widow undoubtedly gave the smallest amount of money, yet Christ said she had given “more than they all.” v. 3. Bobbie wanted to give Fido a heaping plate of chicken and potato. Mother said “No,” but after dinner he might have the bones and scraps. .Do we not treat God much the way dogs are treated, the left-over time, the nickel or dime for which we have no other use is often all that we give God. Many would say, this girl had noth ing to give. She and her' parents are poor. She is broken in health, unable to work. Last week she sent $200.00 for missionary work in Egypt. Some friends had helped, but she and her family had saved most of the amount. They do without butter and eggs. She patches her waists, turns her dresses, and retrims her hats. This dear girl counts it the privilege of life that God allows her to share in His work by giv ing time, strength and money. Do your girls have the joy of tithing? See 1 Cor. 16:2; 2 Cor. 9:6-8; Mai. 3:8-10.
upon God for these gifts. We cannot merit them, buy, nor manufacture them. God’s greatest gifts are His spiritual gifts. That which cost God most was His Son. “God so loved the world that He gave.” God had nothing too good to give to us. Since He spared not His own son, He will “with Him freely give us all things,” (Rom. 8:32) whatever our need may be. (IJhil. 4:19). Giving brings God joy. He wants us to learn the secret of joy. Nature Gives Can you think of anything that God has created that He has not intended should give itself for another and that does not lose its usefulness if hoarded to itself? Wheat is of no value until it surrenders itself for food. Coal in the mine is useless until it is burned up for fuel. The pond of water'which has no outlet becomes stagnant and germinates disease. Imagine a rose bud saying, “I will not give my beauty and fragrance away.” So it draws its petals tight. Unopened buds have neither fragrance nor color. God Expects Us to Give God wants first of all just ourselves. He is not so anxious for our gifts as for us. If we truly yield ourselves to Him we will realize that we are not our own, but that all we have, time, talents, money belong to Him. We will not ask “how much money shall I give, but how much of God’s money shall I keep for myself? All things come of thee and of thine own hand we give them.” (1 Chron. 29.4) Mrs. Hettie Green who died recently leaving $100,000,000 was anything but rich. She lived in constant fear of being murdered for her money. Under assumed names she roved from one cheap boarding house to another in terror lest her identity be learned and she be asked for money. She spent little upon herself, Her thought was chiefly of investments and reinvest ments, Poor woman.
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