Giving
Giving is a key part of prayer to receive from God. When we ask God we receive according to what he gives to us and he gives to us according to just application of spiritual law.
Jesus told us the spiritual law of giving.
Give, and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure-- pressed down, shaken together, and running over. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return. (Luke 6:38)
God is righteous and just in everything he does, including giving to us. He gives to us according to the requirements of justice.
It is fair and just that we are given to according to using the same standard we use when we give to others. We are given to according to the value of what we have given. It is fair and just to be given little value if we have given little value. It is fair and just to be given more value if we have given more value. It is given to us according to the standard of value we use to value our gift.
While Jesus was in the Temple, he watched the rich people dropping their gifts in the collection box. Then a poor widow came by and dropped in two small coins. “I tell you the truth,” Jesus said, “this poor widow has given more than all the rest of them. For they have given a tiny part of their surplus, but she, poor as she is, has given everything she has.” (Luke 21:1-4)
The rich gave of what they didn’t need to meet their needs - their surplus. The widow needed the two small coins to meet her need. The two small coins were of higher value to the widow than two hundred small coins might have been to a rich person. She will be given to according to the standard she used: according to the value she placed on what she gave.
I assure you that everyone who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or property, for my sake and for the Gospel, will receive now (in this time) in return a hundred times as many houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and property—along with persecution. And in the world to come that person will have eternal life. (Mark 10:29-30)
In the hundredfold return Jesus is talking about giving of great value: things we value most highly, things we trust in to meet our needs. As Peter said, they had given everything they had - including themselves.
Another part of the standard of value we use is giving thanks. Is what we are giving of enough value to us that we ever gave thanks for it? When God does give to us do we give thanks? According to the measure we give thanks it is given to us again too.
Value is one part of the standard of our giving. Purpose is another.
Pay attention in your charity giving, that you do it not in front of people so that you may be seen by them, otherwise there is no reward for you with your Father in Heaven. When therefore you do your charity giving, you should not blast a trumpet before you like the pretenders in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be glorified by the children of men; truly I say to you, they have received their reward. But you, whenever you do charity giving, let not your left know what your right is doing. So that your charity may be in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you in public. (Matthew 6:1-4)
We need to pay attention that our giving is giving for the right purpose. It is easy to slip from giving to purchasing. Those to gave to be seen of men weren’t really giving, they were buying recognition and they got what they paid for.
It is not wrong to give and expect God to give to us according to what and how we have given. That giving trusts God and that is living faith. That giving is part of seeking God and believing that he rewards those who diligently seek him.
I assure you that everyone who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or property, for my sake and for the Gospel, will receive now (in this time) in return a hundred times as many houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and property—along with persecution. And in the world to come that person will have eternal life. (Mark 10:29-30)
One purpose for giving is for Jesus’ sake and for the Gospel: so God is thanked and glorified, so his name is held holy in the earth, and so the kingdom of God grows and prospers. Another is to simply meet a person’s need.
If we delay in our giving we should expect a delay in being given to. That is the standard we used.
If you can help your neighbor now, don't say, "Come back tomorrow, and then I'll help you." (Proverbs 3:28)
Like the giving of thanks, it is easy to overlook forgiving as a part of giving. When we forgive we are giving a person a release from a debt or penalty owed. Ultimately forgiving is a choice between giving freedom from a debt or penalty owed or bondage to the payment of the debt or penalty. According to which giving we choose it will be given back to us.
Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn others, or it will all come back against you. Forgive others, and you will be forgiven. (Luke 6:37)
Those are the basics of giving. There are a couple of other principles of giving to be noted.
He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet's reward. He who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man will receive a righteous man's reward. Whoever gives one of these little ones just a cup of cold water to drink in the name of a disciple, most certainly I tell you he will in no way lose his reward. (Matthew 10:41-42)
God gives a prophet a prophet’s reward, a righteous man a righteous man’s reward, and a disciple a disciple’s award. A person who gives to a prophet is also given a prophet’s reward, etc.. The prophet's reward and hundredfold return for giving for the Gospel may be a situation of God giving back to us according to the value of our gift to him in providing for the needs of the Gospel, the prophet, the righteous, and disciples.
Having all things in common is another form of giving. It may not involve giving up ownership and power over something, but making it freely available to others in need. We may be very certain that according to the standard we use in having all things in common with God and others it is given to us.
Ask, and it will be given to you according to the standard of measure you use in giving. To every one who asks it will be given according to the standard of measure they use in giving.
God Has Already Given To Meet Some Needs
Some of our needs exceed the greatest measure which we could possibly use in giving. These include our need for salvation, redemption, and spiritual cleansing. The value to us of meeting those needs exceeds anything we could possibly give. What could we possibly give anywhere near the measure of eternal life? Freedom from Satan's rule? Forgiveness and freedom from sin? Healing?
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. (1 Peter 2:24)
Paying an extremely high price God has already given us these things.
For God loved the world in this way: so much that he would give up his Son, The Only One, so that everyone who trusts in him shall not be lost, but he shall have eternal life. (John 3:16)
For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin... that He may be shown to be righteous Himself, and the giver of righteousness to those who believe in Jesus. (Romans 3:25-26)
These are things God knows are beyond our measure to give. He took it upon himself to go ahead and give them to us already. These are things that we receive by faith according to the measure we use in receiving. Of particular importance is the standard of measure we use to value these things God has given us.