152. Blessed
Acts 20:35 Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.
This promise of blessing needs to be believed because it runs contrary to logic and experience. It is natural to believe that it is better to receive than to give. Mathematically, receiving is adding and giving is subtracting. Jesus says, No, giving is adding blessing and receiving would be subtracting blessing. How do we explain this? We don’t; we believe it.
A giving spirit expands and grows one’s spirit and a large heart blesses others and one’s self. A large heart has a growing capacity to hold more of God than a shrinking, centered on self, spirit. The person who receives and never gives shrinks, stagnates, becomes foul and useless. He becomes like the Dead Sea, in which there is only income and no outlet; nothing is fresh or alive. The Sea of Galilee is fresh and alive and teeming with fish because it flows. A selfish spirit is dead and small. A giving spirit is alive and growing larger. It is easy to see which is a blessing.
Blessings will redound to the giver in material ways, but material blessings are very minor and insignificant compared with the spiritual, emotional, and relational blessings that are poured upon the one who gives. The promise is given to us not so that we will now be good people and get into a spirit of giving; the promise is rather given to us so that we may know that when I give I do not lose but actually gain. The fact is that we will be givers because the Lord is a giver and He lives in us, and He uses us to bless others. The saying is more of permission to give than a motivation to give. The believer says, “I want to give.” Jesus says, “Go ahead, you will be blessed.”