God gave Abraham a vision of a world-culture free of war and plundering, which was, no doubt, baffling to the king of Sodom. But God responded by saying to Abraham ‘I am your exceeding great reward’. That is a revelation. It shows our attitude to wealth affects God’s attitude to us. He is too big to get into a heart, which is padlocked, with greed.
Another example two thousand years later in Acts chapter 10, comes with Cornelius, a centurion of the Italian Regiment. He gave a lot of money to the needy, and an angel told him ‘Your prayers and your gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God’.
It takes a giver to respond to God for He is primarily a Giver. He gives totally for the sheer love of it– that is God! To come to know God Israel had to bring offerings. Without the giving-impulse we can’t resonate to His heartbeat, and are deaf to the song of His joy and kindness. Givers are never aliens to God, only the tight-fisted.
He ‘loves a cheerful giver’.
Another example two thousand years later in Acts chapter 10, comes with Cornelius, a centurion of the Italian Regiment. He gave a lot of money to the needy, and an angel told him ‘Your prayers and your gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God’.
It takes a giver to respond to God for He is primarily a Giver. He gives totally for the sheer love of it– that is God! To come to know God Israel had to bring offerings. Without the giving-impulse we can’t resonate to His heartbeat, and are deaf to the song of His joy and kindness. Givers are never aliens to God, only the tight-fisted.
He ‘loves a cheerful giver’.
