Luke 6:38 (NLT) “Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.”

Heard a story from back in the Middle Ages, about a farmer walking down the road with a sack of grain over his shoulder, going to market, when along comes a big fancy carriage and stops right beside him.  The door opens, the steps fold down, and out comes the King.  The King says to the farmer, “What do you have in your bag?”  The farmer says, “Wheat.”  The King says, “Could I have some of your wheat?”  Farmer, “Sure.”  So he carefully picks out one grain of wheat and places it in the King’s palm. The King says, “Thank you,” turns to his footman and says, “Give me the bag.”  The King reaches in and carefully picks out one large gold coin, places it in the farmer’s hand, gets in the carriage and rides away.  The farmer watches him go, holds up the gold coin, looks at it and says to himself, “I wonder what would have happened if I’d given him my whole bag.”

Just for fun, let’s say the King is God.  The basic lesson of the story is that if you give a little you’ll get a little, but if you give a lot you’ll get a lot.  Short version: GENEROSITY WILL BE REWARDED.  Somewhere I saw a version of this Bible verse that says, “Give and you will receive, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will the LORD pour into your lap.”  That means you don’t have to depend on the people you give stuff to, because the LORD is going to fulfill this promise.

Second, this story may be (probably is) talking about giving our “prayers, our presence, our gifts and our service,” to those in need.  But even more it is talking about sharing our relationship with God, about how we came to know Him, about what our relationship with God means to us, and about what God is doing in our lives.  Actually I think this verse is MORE about sharing God with others than it is about just sharing the things of this world with them.