GIVING AND RECEIVING

GIVING & RECEIVING

Acts 20:35 -- “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

Malachi 3:8-12 -- “Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, ‘In what way have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings! You are cursed with a curse, for you have robbed Me, even this whole nation! Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and try Me now in this,” says the Lord of Hosts, “If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the Devourer for your sakes, so that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field,” says the Lord of Hosts. “And all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a delightful land,” says the Lord of Hosts.

Luke 6:38 -- “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, if will be measured back to you.” [JHK Note: The “resonance” between the Old Testament and the New Testament is one of my favorite topics, so I put this verse from the NT immediately after the quote from Malachi in the OT.]

James 1:17 -- “Every good and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.”

Matthew 7:7-12 -- “Ask, and it will be given to you! Seek, and you will find! Knock, and it will be opened to you! For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him! Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” [JHK Note: This is the Law of Reciprocity.]

John 14:13-14 -- “Whatever you ask in my name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in my name, I will do it.”

John 16:23 -- “Whatever you ask the Father in my name He will give you! Until now, you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.”

 

1 John 3:22 -- “Whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.”

Luke 6:35 -- “LoVe your enemies! Do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return! Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He is kind to the unthankful and evil. Therefore be merciful, just as your Father in heaven also is merciful.” [JHK Note: Again we see the Law of Reciprocity, except that what we do here on Earth may be rewarded in Heaven.]