From the archives of Oral Roberts
Luke 6:38 is one of the great promises of the Bible: “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom.”
How does God give to you? He gives to you through people. A man shared with me recently about what God had done in his life. It was a living example of this Scripture to me!
This man had gotten in trouble financially. Everything he did seemed to turn out wrong ― his investments, his business decisions. Every person I know goes through times like that when no matter what they try to do, it doesn’t work. Finally he reached the point where he couldn’t pay his bills. His home was in jeopardy; his family was hurting. In desperation he prayed, “God, I don’t have anything to give right now. If You’ll give me $1,000 then I’ll give it to You as a seed.” And God brought $1,000 into his hands.
He said to me, “Oral, the first thing that happened was that the devil came whispering to me, ‘Now you’ve got $1,000 to pay some of your bills.’”
I said, “In other words, the devil said, ‘Store it, don’t sow it.”
He said, “I hadn’t thought of it like that, but that’s it exactly.” “What did you do?” I asked.
He said, “I looked at that $1,000 and I thought about how the Lord had answered my prayer, and I decided to give to the Lord’s work. When I gave it, my very being was moved.”
I said, “What happened?” He said, “Nothing.”
The seed went into the ground. It went out of sight. It went into God’s hands. Nothing visible happened. But then…
“Seven days later,” the man continued, “there was a knock on my door and it was a man to whom I had loaned money years ago. He hadn’t repaid any of the debt for so long that I had dismissed it from my mind, written it off my books. But there he was.”
“John,” the man said, “do you remember the $10,000 you loaned me years ago?”
“Well, yes, but I had just kind of forgotten about it by now.”
“He said, ‘Well, here’s a check for that amount.”
“Why are you paying it now?”
“Something came all over me two days ago and I’ve not been able to rest.”
“Oral,” this man concluded, “that $10,000 was exactly what I needed to get caught up.”
Friend, there’s no shortage with God! He’s true to His Word. You give to Him―He’ll move on people you may not know… people you may have forgotten about… or people you know well… to bring to you what you need.
Give today. Trust God to cause men to “give unto you” pressed down, shaken together, and running over.