Use it or lose it

If we do not give what we have received, our gifts stagnate, dry up, or rot. 

Why? God blesses us so we might bless others.

Why? Because this is who God is and he created us like Himself - in his image.

Giving and receiving are central to who God is. Both are fundamental to God as a community of love that freely and continuously gives and receives love and life between the Father and Son in, by, and through to Spirit.

 

To reflect God best, we must give as He gives. This is why He created us - to receive His love and give it out to others just like God does within Himself as a community of love.

The reason the world is broken is that we've abandoned our original design as God's image bearers. We no longer give, but we take. And when we take, we keep and cling on to what we have as if it is the ¹source of life. 

But we are not designed to be takers but receivers and givers, i.e. we are not created to be a stagnant pond but an overflowing stream fed by an endless, infinite spring.

We cannot give until we receive what is vital to who we are as bearers of God's image i.e. love from the Source and Giver of life, love, and all things. He is the infinite spring. 

"Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water (literal water from a well) will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” - John 4:13-14 

For a discussion on the joy of generosity, click here. 

For a discussion on giving what you have click here

For a discussion on giving as you have received, click here

For a discussion on sowing and reaping, click here. 

For a discussion on making money, click here. 

For a discussion on the difference between a legitimate and illegitimate business, click here. 

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¹Yet, everything that exists only exists because of the Creator and Sustainer of all things. If there were no God, nothing else would be, including us.