Sharing

In today’s economy, more people than ever are struggling to make a living; charitable giving is becoming harder and less frequent for many… not because people are less charitable or generous than they once were, but simply because they are trying to earn and keep a good living for themselves and their families, and the pressure is on. 

Yet the Bible does have something to say about this… You see the economics of God are different from the economics of men. And while it may seem counterintuitive to follow the economics of God, I can testify from personal experience that the end result is very good and true.

I should also point out that the lessons taught in the Bible here are not just for money, but for everything that we are entrusted with on this earth, God’s teachings always work if we follow them with pure motives and a pure heart. This is not the old “giving to get” teaching taught by some preachers out there today. No, that is what I originally thought as well, and it never worked for me either. Instead what the scripture that we are about to look at is actually referring to is not giving to get, but sharing the blessings that God has entrusted us with, knowing that He owns it all anyway, and trusting that He will provide us all that we need in faith. When we do that, we find that we are released from the worry of not having enough and we are then able to return to God what is rightfully His anyway, and allow Him to bless both it and us, as well as the others we are sharing the thing with. 

Now let us take a look at John 6:5-13: 

“When Jesus then lifted up his eyes, and saw a great company come unto him, he saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat?
And this he said to prove him: for he himself knew what he would do.
Philip answered him, Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little.
One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, saith unto him,
There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many?
And Jesus said, Make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand.
And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would.
When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost.
Therefore they gathered them together, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above unto them that had eaten.” 

We can learn from this, three main points that are so very important, especially today… 

Firstly, take the faith of the boy who had the five loaves and two fishes… The loaves and fishes already belonged to God, and Jesus could’ve simply forced the boy to give up his lunch, or the boy could’ve fought and refused saying “this is all I have and I’m hungry too.” Yet neither of that happened… the boy freely shared his provisions, and the end result was a miracle and blessing far beyond anything the boy could’ve asked or hoped for. 

Secondly, we can learn from this that even when the situation seems hopeless or impossible, God always will make a way for us if we truly surrender to Him and His will. Notice the doubting shown by His disciple Andrew, when he states how they have nowhere near enough funds to buy food for the crowd. Yet in the end when he did what Christ commanded, all worked out. 

Thirdly we can learn from this the way the Lord sometimes steps back for a second to see how much we really trust Him. Notice at the very start of the scripture, Jesus asks where they an get food for the crowd, even though He already knew He would be performing a miracle. This was done simply to be a test of trust and faith. 

Let us today trust our God and have faith enough in Him to be generous and share what He has given us; because it is in the sharing with a pure heart and motive that the love and generosity of Christ can be seen through us. The enemy would have us worry about our future, but if we are truly followers of Christ, our future is in His hands, not ours. So let us not worry about things which are not ours, let us trust God completely, and stay connected to Him always.