Open Wide Your Hand

Since God is gracious and giving and opens His hand wide toward us (and invites us to set all our expectation on Him) we should be gracious and giving and open our hands to give generously to others, because God wants to show them His grace, too. That is why, in addition to always giving us all sufficiency in all things, God wants to have us plenty more besides, so we may do a lot of good for others. Let us then be generous, open-handed, bountiful in our giving.

Paul said, “He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully” (2 Corinthians 9:6). To sow “sparingly” means to hold back, to be stingy with your seed. How you sow is how you will reap. If you hold back your seed, you are also holding back your harvest. In the Greek text, to sow “bountifully” means to sow “with blessing,” and when you sow “with blessing,” that is also how you reap — with blessing! When you sow with your hand wide open, you will one day have a harvest that is larger than you can contain. You will never end up behind because you have been generous toward others, and what you sow will cause praise and thanksgiving to abound toward God. Watch how this works:

Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness, while you are enriched in everything for all liberality, which causes thanksgiving through us to God. For the administration of this service not only supplies the needs of the saints, but also is abounding through many thanksgivings to God, while, through the proof of this ministry, they glorify God for the obedience of your confession to the gospel of Christ, and for your liberal sharing with them and all men, and by their prayer for you, who long for you because of the exceeding grace of God in you. (2 Corinthians 9:10-14)

God gives us “bread,” every provision to meet our needs fully and completely. He also gives us “seed,” the more than enough, which is for sowing. When we sow it toward the needs of others, God multiplies it, increasing its fruitfulness, that is, the benefit it brings to others. That, in turn, brings forth praise and thanks to God — and we get to be a part of what God is doing in the lives of others. In this way, not only do all of our own needs get met, but also the needs of others, because we are allowing the grace of God to be abundant through us as well as to us. As we keep sowing generously for the sake of others, we will continue to reap bountifully because we are trusting in the open hand of God.

Seed is for Sowing

Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness, while you are enriched in everything for all liberality, which causes thanksgiving through us to God. (2 Corinthians 9:10-11)

The Bible has a lot to tell us about seeds and sowing, more than I can do justice to in this short blog, but here are a few that have somehow come to mind. (For more, see Sowing and Reaping.)

Faith is like a seed. Jesus said, “If you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you” (Matthew 17:20).

The kingdom of God is like a seed. Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field, which indeed is the least of all the seeds; but when it is grown it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches” (Matthew 13:31-32).

The kingdom of God is like one sowing seed. Again, Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how. For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head. But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come” (Mark 4:26-29).

In Galatians 6:7, Paul reminds us that what we sow is what we will reap. In 2 Corinthians 9:6, he reminds us that how we so is also how we will reap; if we sow sparingly (stingily, holding back) we will also reap sparingly, but if we sow bountifully (generously, freely, “with blessing”), we will also reap bountifully. In 2 Corinthians 9, particularly, Paul is actually talking about finances. He was preparing to receive an offering to help the believers at Jerusalem who were in distress, and he was encouraging the believers at Corinth to be generous with their “seed,” which is to say, their financial resources.

It is in this context, then, that Paul makes the statement that appears at the top of this post. It is a benediction*, a word of blessing, and it expresses what God wants to do for us and how He wants to work through us. He wants to give us all the bread we need, but He also wants to give us seed for sowing bountifully. Because sowing seed is as important for us as the bread we eat.

God not only supplies seed for us to sow, He also multiplies it and causes it to increase. It becomes a blessing to others and results in us being enriched, made wealthy, in everything and in every way so that we can be even more generous, to become even more of a blessing. That results in thanksgiving to God because of how we have let Him work through us. It is win-win-win: for those who are blessed by our sowing, for us doing the sowing and for God who receives the praise for what was sown.

You may only have one small seed to begin with. No matter. If you sow it in faith (because faith is like a seed), you will be proclaiming the kingdom of God (because the kingdom is like the seed and the one who sows seed). It will display the generosity of God and prophesy the prosperity of God.

*For more about the pastoral prayers found in the New Testament, see Praying With Fire: Change Your World with the Powerful Prayers of the Apostles.

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The Focus of Our Faith
Paul’s Letters to the Jesus Believers at Colosse
Bite-Size Studies Through Colossians
by Jeff Doles

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Available in paperback and Kindle (Amazon), epub (Google and iTunes) and PDF.

Will You Scatter or Hold Back?

There is one who scatters, yet increases more;
And there is one who withholds more than is right,
But it leads to poverty.

(Proverbs 11:24)

It might seem counter-intuitive, but the one who “scatters,” who disperses and gives freely out of his resources, is the one who sees increase in his resources and has all he needs. But the one who holds on to what he’s got and is tightfisted with his resources, giving only sparingly, will end up in lack. The Message says it this way: “The world of the generous gets larger and larger; the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller.”

Surely the apostle Paul had this in mind when he said, “He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully” (2 Corinthians 9:6). He was taking up a collection for the beleaguered believers in Jerusalem and seeking generous support for them. But the principle is universal: How you sow is how you will reap.

The psalm writer speaks of the righteous man and the blessing that comes upon him because, “He has dispersed abroad, he has given to the poor” (Psalm 112:9). The Hebrew word for “disperse” is the same one for “scatter” in Proverbs 11. This is a man who does not withhold his resources but gives freely and generously. Part of the blessing on him is that “wealth and riches will be in his house” (v. 3). Why? Because God can trust him to use it properly and give with an open hand, just as God does. As Paul said, “God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work” (2 Corinthians 9:8). Generosity begets generosity, abundance begets abundance, and prosperity begets prosperity. But those who hoard and refrain from helping others — that is a poverty mindset, and it begets poverty. Wisdom goes on to say,

The generous soul will be made rich,
And he who waters will also be watered himself.

The people will curse him who withholds grain,
But blessing will be on the head of him who sells it.

(Proverbs 11:25-26)

The “generous” soul is, literally, the one who blesses (berakah). That is, he freely blesses others by his generosity. The result is that he will himself be abundantly blessed and will prosper. Because he has helped meet the needs of others, satisfying their thirst, his own needs will also be met. It is easy to become so focused on meeting our own needs that we forget about the needs of others. But if we will give attention to helping others, we will find that it comes back to us in unexpected ways and there will always be more than enough.

Even in our business dealings, it is the generous man who will prosper. The example here is of a vital commodity in a time of need. The man who withholds it from the market, in order to drive up the price, will be cursed by the people who need it most — he is trading on their misery. But the one who sells his produce at a reasonable profit will have the blessing (berakah) of the people. He benefits them and they benefit him. The Message renders verse 26 this way: “Curses on those who drive a hard bargain! Blessings on all who play fair and square!”

The first man is trying to squeeze all he can out of the situation, to bleed the market dry. He is playing a zero-sum strategy and thinks that he can prosper only at the expense of others. The second man is not afraid to about leave some money on the table. He understands that when he helps his customers prosper, he will prosper as well.

It is really all a matter of sowing and reaping. What you sow is what you will reap, and always in proportion to how you sow. Jesus taught this principle: “Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you” (Luke 6:38).

That is a powerful promise for those who have learned to sow bountifully.

The Reciprocity of Sowing and Reaping

There is one who scatters, yet increases more;
And there is one who withholds more than is right,
But it leads to poverty.

The generous soul will be made rich,
And he who waters will also be watered himself.

(Proverbs 11:24-25)

How can one scatter and yet increase? How can another hold on tight to what he has, and still end up broke? It is the reciprocity of sowing and reaping, of seedtime and harvest: Sow a seed, reap a harvest. The one who is scattering in this verse is actually broadcasting seed.

Paul talked about this in his letter to the Corinthians: “He who sows sparingly, will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully” (2 Corinthians 9:6). Seeds work only when you plant them. Hold them in your hand, or keep them in your pouch, and they will bring you no return. Sow a little, reap a little; sow a lot, reap a lot.

“The generous soul will be made rich.” Or as Paul said, sow bountifully, reap bountifully. He was speaking in a financial context, but the principle is applicable in every aspect of life. Jesus said,

Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you. (Luke 6:38)

Now, the principle works both ways, both positively and negatively. Give out judgment and condemnation, and you will get a boatload of it back. That is actually what Jesus is talking about here. But sow kindness and mercy, and that is what you will reap. Help others to prosper, and you will end up prospering also. Or as the proverb says, “He who waters will also be watered himself.” When you refresh others, you will also be refreshed. Paul tells us that “whatever a man sows, the he will also reap” (Galatians 6:7).

Eugene Peterson translates these proverbs this way:

The world of the generous gets larger and larger; the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller. The one who blesses others is abundantly blessed; those who help others are helped.

Whatever you sow, that is what you will reap. Sow sparingly, reap sparingly. Sow bountifully, reap bountifully. The choice is yours.

Don’t Be Fooled: Understanding Sowing and Reaping

Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. (Galatians 6:7-8)

“God is not mocked.” Paul is speaking of an immutable principle: Whatever you sow is what you will reap. God established that at the very beginning, when He created plants and animals each to reproduce after their own kind, and told Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply. God also reaffirmed this same principle to Noah when He promised, “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease” (Genesis 8:22). It is true in the natural realm; it is just as true in the spiritual realm. Do not treat it lightly!

It’s a bedrock principle: Whatever you, that is what you will reap.” In his second letter to the Corinthian believes, Paul brought out this accompanying principle: “He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully” (2 Corinthians 9:6). Not only do you reap what you sow, but also according to how you sow. You will also reap more than you sow. Jesus said,

Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measure back to you. (Luke 6:38)

“Whatever a man sows, that he will also reap” will be either a blessing or a curse for you — it all depends on what you sow. There’s really only two directions you can go with this: You can sow to the flesh, or you can sow to the Spirit. Here’s how Paul lays it out:

• He who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption.
• He who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.

Sowing to the flesh is thinking that everything we say and do, and how we spend and invest our money is about us. It has no lasting value and results only in a harvest of corruption, decay and a ruined life.

Sowing to the Spirit, on the other hand, is realizing that everything we say and do, and how we spend and invest our money is all about God. It has eternal value and that harvest of a life that is rich and full.

Sowing to the flesh is like a thief who comes to steal, kill and destroy. Sowing to the Spirit is lining up with Jesus, the good shepherd who comes to give us life more abundantly (John 10:10).

Earlier in his letter to the Galatians, Paul made this comparison between the works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit:

Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told in the time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we life in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. (Galatians 5:19-25)

Don’t be fooled. Everything you say and do will either bring life and light, or death and darkness into your world. Choose carefully what will you sow.

Go with Going, Come with Coming

Those who sow in tears
Shall reap in joy.
He who continually goes forth weeping,
Bearing seeds for sowing,
Shall doubtless come again with rejoicing,
Bringing his sheaves with him.

(Psalm 126:5-6)

In the economy of God, those who sow shall invariably reap:

Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sow to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. (Galatians 6:7-8)

He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully shall also reap bountifully. (2 Corinthians 9:6)

We may sow in tears, as Isaac did in a time of famine, but that will not hinder the harvest or the joy: “Then Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year a hundredfold; and the Lord blessed him” (Genesis 26:12).

So Jesus answered them and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house of brothers or sisters of father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel’s, who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time—houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions—and in the age to come, eternal life. (Mark 10:29-30)

Jesus wept, and Lazarus was raised from the dead (John 11:35-44). That is sowing in tears and reaping in joy.

Notice that, in this psalm, there is a purposefulness and consistency in sowing. It is he who “continually goes forth” sowing who will come back rejoicing in the harvest. The Hebrew for “continually goes forth” is the same verb repeated twice. It is an idiomatic device used for emphasizing a point. We might read it this way: He who “goes with going.” There is a single-mindedness to this kind of sowing. Tears do not impede it; adversity cannot hold it back.

This kind of sowing brings dramatic results. For he who “continually goes forth” sowing shall “doubtless come again” with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves (his harvest) with him. He shall “doubtless come again.” This is the same Hebrew idiom again, for the verb for come is used twice in succession. He who goes with going with seed to sow, shall come with coming, rejoicing in the harvest. There is no question about it; it is assured from the beginning.

Jesus talked about faith as a seed, about the Word of God as a seed, and about the kingdom of God as a seed. Our job is to continually go sowing them and all our resources. When we get serious about planting seed with great purposefulness and faith, even in the midst of adversity, then it is quite certain that we will come back with a rich harvest that will have us shouting with joy.

When we go with going, we shall come with coming. When we sow in tears, we shall reap in joy.

Giving and Receiving Glory

Honor the LORD with your possessions,
And with the firstfruits of all your increase;
So your barns will be filled with plenty,
And you vats will overflow with new wine.

(Proverbs 3:9-10)

For the LORD God is a sun and shield;
The LORD will give grace and glory
No good thing will He withhold
From those who walk uprightly.

(Psalm 84:11)

The Hebrew word for “honor” in Proverbs 3 and for “glory” in Psalm 84 is the same. It is the word kabad, which literally means “heavy.” It was used to refer to the weight of wealth, but came to be used also for the value of every good thing within a person.

When Proverbs tells us to honor the Lord with our possessions, it is not speaking of intangibles. It is a call to give substance or weight to honor by giving to God out of our possessions. This literally gives glory to God. Proverbs further explains this as the firstfruits of all our increase. We honor God by giving Him, not the last and the least, but the first and the best.

As we give tangibly to the Lord, we will receive tangible results: “So your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats overflow with new wine.” This is abundance from God. As we give the first and the best to Him, He multiplies if back to us in practical ways.

We find this also in the New Testament. Paul said, “He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully” (2 Corinthians 9:6). Jesus said, “Give and it shall be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you” (Luke 6:38).

When we are in right relationship with God, He gives us grace and glory. The NIV says, “favor and honor.” God’s grace is God’s favor. Understand that we are not made right with God by what we give, but by the righteousness (or rightness) we receive from the Lord Jesus Christ. For God made Him to be sin for us, that we might be made the rightness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21). But within that right relationship with God, when we honor Him and give Him the glory of our substance, we are drawing on His favor. When we honor Him, He honors us; when we give glory to Him, He gives glory to us. As the glory we give to God is substantive, so is the glory that God multiplies back to us.

Give God glory by the substance of your possession, the first and the best of all your increase. It will release the glory of God in our life in ways you never thought possible.

How to Reap Generously

But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. (2 Corinthians 9:6 NKJV)

Remember this: he who sows sparingly and grudgingly will also reap sparingly and grudgingly, and he who sows generously [that blessings may come to someone] will also reap generously and with blessings. (2 Corinthians 9:6, The Amplified Bible)

How do you want to reap? A. Sparingly and grudgingly? B. Generously and with blessings?

If you answered with A, hit yourself on the head with a rubber mallet, and when you come to, perhaps you will think differently about it.

Sane and sharp people will answer with B. They want to reap generously and with blessings. That’s what we call a “no-brainer.”

How do you reap generously and with blessings?

The answer is clear and simple: Sow generously and with blessings. For as you sow, that is exactly how you will reap.

And yet, strangely enough, there are people who sow sparingly and grudgingly but expect to reap generously and with blessings. They have not yet believed the truth — it has not yet been settled in their hearts.

Everything is about faith, even our giving. If you truly believe that we will reap bountifully, then that is exactly how you will sow, gladly and willingly — even expectantly.

Lending to the LORD

He who has pity on the poor lends to the LORD,
And He will pay back what he has given. (Proverbs 19:17)

Did you know that you can actually lend to the LORD, and He will pay you back? That’s what this verse is saying. The word for “pity” means to be gracious, to show favor. Literally, it is to bend or to stoop down in kindness. Here again, the word for “poor” means “dangling,” and refers to someone who is very much in need.

The word for “lend” literally means to twine, or to unite. That is what borrowing and lending does, it creates a bond, even an obligation. The man who shows favor to the poor actually lends to the LORD, and that places the LORD in his debt. Oh, how that idea offends the religious spirit, but that is clearly what the Scripture implies. God allows Himself to be in our debt.

Now, the lender/debtor relationship that is implied here is not one of animosity. The lending and repaying are not done in a begrudging way. Rather, it is a delightful partnership that is being depicted. For why is showing favor to the poor understood as lending unto the LORD? Because God identifies His heart with the poor. They are of special concern to Him. The desire of His heart is to lift them up out of the ashes and bring them into His abundance. So, when we show favor to the poor, we are actually identifying with God’s heart, partnering with Him in His good pleasure. We have touched the heart of God, and there is great reward in that.

Our God is a God who repays. In Jeremiah 51:56, He is called Yahweh El Gemulah, the LORD God of Recompenses. Often in the Old Testament, the recompense is negative, i.e., God repaying the wicked for their wickedness. But His recompense also works very positively.

It’s a matter of sowing and reaping, and Yahweh is the Lord of the Harvest. We discover this principle in the New Testament:

Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. (Galatians 6:7-9)

So it is with our lending to the LORD. It is a seed we sow. And when we sow, we reap. If we sow well, we reap well. If we sow bountifully, we reap bountifully. If we sow sparingly, we reap sparingly.

What we give to God is a seed, what God gives to us is a harvest, and the harvest is always greater than the seed. What we sow is what we reap. Sow favor, and reap favor. Sow thorns, and you will not like your harvest.

God will “pay back.” The word used here means to reciprocate, to make complete. It is a restoration, a fulfillment. The circle is complete. But don’t stop there. Let the circle keep going by reaching out more and more to those who are in need of God’s kindness shown through you. When we show grace, He shows grace back to us. When we prosper the poor, God prospers us. God always repays, and He always repays BIG!

The Overflow of Harvest This Year

This is a year of Great Overflow, a year of Great Harvest. Will it be a great year for you? That depends. What have you been sowing? You will have a harvest this year. Will it be a blessing or a bane?

Whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. (Galatians 6.7)

He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. (2 Corinthians 9:6)

Sow blessing, reap blessing.
Sow evil, reap evil.
Sow stingily, reap stingily.
Sow bountifully, reap bountifully.

“Behold the days are coming,” says the LORD,
  “When the plowman shall overtake the reaper,
  And the treader of grapes him who sows seed;
The mountains shall drip with sweet wine,
  And all the hills shall flow with it.”

(Amos 9:13)

If you’ve been sowing well, get ready to reap well. If you’ve been sowing poorly, repentance is a wonderful thing — a place of beginning again. Start sowing well.

Ministering Out of the Overflow of God's Abundance

Our God is a God of abundance. More than enough. His paths drip abundance. David said, “My cup runs over” (Psalm 23:5). Running over. Overflow.

Someone has said that Egypt was a land of “not enough,” the wilderness was a land of “just enough,” but the Promised Land was a land of “more than enough.” It was a land flowing (overflowing) with milk and honey.

Another psalm writer gave this musical notation: “Both the singers and the players on instruments say, ‘All my springs are in you.’” (Psalm 87:7). The “you” refers either to the Lord Himself, of else to His holy city, Zion. Either way, it refers to abundance that comes from God. For what is a spring if not an overflow?

Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). Overflow.

Paul understood the overflow of God as the abundance of His grace. “And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work” (2 Corinthians 9:8). This is the abundance of God so that we may also have abundance.

This is not just spiritual abundance, as if the spiritual could be separated from the natural. This is spiritual abundance that flows forth into the natural. In fact, in the context of 2 Corinthians 9, this verse moves from the general truth of God’s abundance in our lives to the particular abundance of God in our finances — a.k.a. money.

Yes, God’s abundance is as much about our money as about anything else in our lives. God wants to bless us with an abundance of it — more than enough — so that we can overflow with financial blessing into the lives of others. He wants to give us more than enough so we can have abundance for every good work.

This has always been God’s way. In the covenant document of Israel, the Book of Deuteronomy, God says, “And you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth that He may establish His covenant” (Deuteronomy 8:17). The power to get wealth comes from God so that He may establish His covenant on the earth. It is a covenant of blessing.

Psalm 112 talks about the blessing on the righteous, those who fear the LORD and delight greatly in His commandments. “Wealth and riches will be in his house” (v. 3). Why? Because he is “gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous. A good man deals graciously and lends” (vv. 4-5). God blesses the righteous with wealth so that they can overflow with blessing toward others.

Some Christians have a very stingy spirit. “I don’t need much, just enough to get by,” they say, imagining themselves to be very pious and humble. But in fact, they are grudging and miserly. They are withholding the blessing with which God wants them to bless others. They are stopping the abundance of God in their lives. They have no overflow, consequently they have no flow either. They become stagnant pools — a blessing to no one.

In the season of Thanksgiving, ought we not to give thanks for the bounty of the Lord by letting it flow through us to others? Ought we not to sow bountifully, so that we may reap bountifully, so that we may sow even more bountifully, and thus multiply blessing to many. We will not come up short if we do. Rather, we will experience the current of God’s compassion, the flow of His love into the lives of others. We will be ministering to others out of the overflow of His passion and power at work in us. Its all good.

Developing a Bountiful Eye

God has always placed a premium on helping the poor. Let the following passages soak in a bit.

Blessed is he who considers the poor;
The LORD will deliver him in time of trouble.
The LORD will preserve him and keep him alive,
And he will be blessed on the earth;
You will not deliver him to the will of his enemies.
The LORD will strengthen him on his bed of illness;
You will sustain him on his sickbed.

(Psalm 41:1-3)

The blessing of the Lord — deliverance, preservation, strength and healing — belongs to those who help the poor.

“He who has pity on the poor lends to the LORD,
And He will pay back what he has given.” (Proverbs 19:17)

When we give to the poor, we are lending to the Lord. How we treat others bears a direct relationship to how our heart is toward the Lord. Remember the dividing of the sheep and goat nations in Matthew 25:31-46? How we treat Jesus’ brethren is exactly how we are treating Him.

The Apostle John said, “If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also” (1 John 4:20-21).

Whenever we give to the poor, it is the Lord who will repay, and He always pays back with interest — good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over (Luke 6:38).

He who has a bountiful eye will be blessed,
For he gives of his bread to the poor. (Proverbs 22:9)

Develop a bountiful heart. If you sow bountifully, you will also reap bountifully. You see, there is a flow to blessing. The more you let it flow through you to others, the more you will experience its energizing current. It is the love of God in action.

He who gives to the poor will not lack,
But he who hides his eyes will have many curses.(Proverbs 28:27)

You do not come out a loser when you give to the poor, only when you turn away from them. Give to the poor and you will not lack, for God will take care of you.

Faith point: Faith works through love (Galatians 5:6). The NIV says, “faith expressing itself through love.” Or as the Amplified Bible has it: “faith activated and energized and expressed and working through love." Remember the poor by your faith expressing itself through love.

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Healing Scriptures and Prayers
by Jeff Doles

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Available in paperback and Kindle (Amazon), epub (Google and iTunes) and PDF.