Luke 6:38 Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.
Just recently I claimed this particular promise. I was preparing to give a study at my church on the Holy Spirit based on the vision found in chapter 4 of Zechariah. With only 1 week left to prepare I was sensing some pressure to spend as much time as possible on it. Normally I don’t like to utilize my own personal devotional time in sermon preparation but, as a layman, I don’t have work time blocked off for sermon preparation. Besides, my mind is freshest that hour before breakfast in the morning. That’s when this promise came to mind. “Give, and it shall be given unto you”. Not a real complex thought. Give yourself to God’s work, give Him your quality devotional time to help others know more about Him, and He will respond in some way with a blessing you might not otherwise receive.
That’s how I interpreted the promise. Another thought connected itself to this promise found in Steps to Christ page 69:
Do you ask, “How am I to abide in Christ?” In the same way as you received Him at first. “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him.” “The just shall live by faith.” Colossians 2:6; Hebrews 10:38. …. By faith you became Christ’s, and by faith you are to grow up in Him–by giving and taking. You are to give all,–your heart, your will, your service,–give yourself to Him to obey all His requirements; and you must take all,–Christ, the fullness of all blessing, to abide in your heart, to be your strength, your righteousness, your everlasting helper,–to give you power to obey.
This thought broadened the promise to provide a principle of life. If I give myself to God fully, He will give Himself to me in an abiding relationship. But the question that nagged at my heart was: Had I fully given myself to Him? Was I fully consecrated to Him? I opened my Bible to refresh my memory of where this promise was and read it a few times to accurately re-memorize it. “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom.” That’s odd. Here I am expecting God to reward my consecrated efforts, yet the promise says that “men” shall respond with a reward. That too left a question in my mind.
As I continued my sermon preparation that week, it happened that at work the subject of my sermon preparation came up and a brother offered that he found it helpful to his sermon prep to check out studies done by Pastor Stephen Bohr. I followed up on this suggestion and found a series of studies on youtube entitled: “Revisiting the Godhead”.
To be continued.
