Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Luke 6:38
“Whatever our hands find to do, we should be doing it with our might for His glory. Our passionate love of Father, of Jesus, and of His Spirit naturally overflows to those around us. His love flows to us, through us, and out to all those around us just as a spring of water bubbles up and flows outward. We can then say, “We delight to do your will, Father.”
As we draw near to Him, we catch His heart of love for those around us. It becomes a delight to share the bountiful gifts He gives us with others as a natural result of His generosity to us. With the same measure we use, He measures again to us. It becomes an unending circle of delight, thankfully receiving His bounty to us, delighting to share with others of that bounty, and being even filled again from His unlimited heavenly storehouses.
As Jesus did, we are doing what we see the Father doing. Let us then not only abide in His amazing presence but also actively choose to reflect His generous nature to the watching world for the joy set before us.”
Liz Adleta in “The Power of Chirst-Centered Generosity and Prayer” in Christ-Centered Generosity: Global Perspectives on the Biblical Call to a Generous Life (Colbert: GGN & KLP) 106.
Today’s biblical text is fitting for Valentine’s Day as it is about far more than money. Jesus wants us to be conduits of His love. Rather than be people who judge and condemn others, we need to be people who generously extend grace and kindness. Do those around you see you as a channel of God’s love?
That’s what I see in my wife, Jenni. She positions herself to receive God’s love often and faithfully dispenses it everywhere she goes. It’s beautiful. I am learning to live likewise. That’s one of my aims this Lent, to pause seven times a day for prayer (cf. Psalm 119:164) and to be refilled with God’s love. Care to join me?
Lent is the time when we learn how to live (in the words of Adleta) in the” unending circle of delight.” When we don’t participate with God in this bountiful work, we are the ones who miss out. Let’s do what we see the Father doing. Let’s delight to be filled, share generously, and be filled again and again.