One day a few years ago, a meek elderly man dressed in very worn, but clean and pressed, sweater and khaki pants knocked on my door. He was asking to do any menial yard work for a small offering. At first, I said no and went back inside. But as I watched him through my window turn and walk on to the next house, I felt my heart tug. “This man receives a lot of rejection, yet he maintains his dignity,” I heard the Spirit say to me. When I saw him walking back our direction I went out and told him I would appreciate it if he would pull the weeds out of my small front garden (I had planned on doing it myself anyway). In his neat clothes, he knelt down and started pulling weeds without a word. When he was finished, the flower bed looked so much better, and I was happy to give him a bottle of water and a nice offering.
The Lord is always so good and gracious and generous to us, continually pouring out blessings upon blessings on us, many of which we don’t deserve but He delights to lavish them on us anyway. And He wants us to do the same for others. I think He often sends needy people across our path to test us in seeing how gracious and generous we can be. How often I have failed this test and walked on by or closed my door to them without a thought.
Proverbs 11:24-25 says,
“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.”
I love this idea. As we scatter our generosity toward others, God will pour back into our lives the same generosity. A funnel can’t funnel with being filled! That is, a funnel can’t direct what is being poured through it without also being filled and coated with whatever is being poured! So, as you offer yourself as a living funnel of God’s love and grace to others, I know you will be filled and coated with love and grace in return! The Lord Himself has promised to reimburse us for our generosity with the same funnel that we hold up for Him to flow through. Jesus said in 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, it will be measured back to you.”
Be encouraged to open your eyes to those around you who need not only their physical but their spiritual needs met as well. May your hand and your heart be open to them. And may the Lord’s hand be open wide to you too with blessings that you can’t contain!