BY: Pastor Bob Miller
TITLE: Give as God Gives
CHAPTER READ: Matthew 7
SCRIPTURE SELECTED: Matthew 7: 11-12
If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.
OBSERVATION: Verse 12 is what is known as the Golden Rule and I’ve always taken it as a stand-alone verse. But Jesus places it together with His teaching on “giving good gifts.” Even those who don’t have the heart of God know enough not to give bad or hurtful things to their children. He says, “how much more” does our Father give good gifts to those who ask Him! He is not stingy like I tend to be…but rather, He is “generous” and “delights” in giving! And then He says, “So in everything, do to others as you want them to do to you.’ Give as you want Your Father in Heaven to give to You.”
APPLICATION: Today, I want to live in the lives of those around me in the same way that my Heavenly Father is living towards me. I want to be as generous, and giving to those around me as He is to me! I want to take my focus off of myself and on what I can get, onto a focus of what I can give.
PRAYER: Lord, may You lift my heart and mind towards being a “how much more” kind of person….so that I’m treating others more and more like you do! I want to be Your hands today so that You can accomplish Your giving through me. Amen