What Does God Promises When You Give by Rick Warren

“Give, and you will receive. You will be given much. It will be poured into your hands — more than you can hold. You will be given so much that it will spill into your lap. The way you give to others is the way God will give to you.” (Luke 6:38 ICB)

To reap a great harvest, you must plant generously in faith.

My wife Kay and I have done this hundreds and hundreds of times. We give away 91 percent of our income and live on 9 percent. We’ve raised that from giving 10 percent 40 years ago. I’m an example of the fact that you cannot out-give God. I’ve tried for 40 years and lost every year.

To plant generously in faith, you need to remember two promises of Jesus. Luke 6:38 says, “Give, and you will receive. You will be given much. It will be poured into your hands — more than you can hold. You will be given so much that it will spill into your lap. The way you give to others is the way God will give to you” (ICB).

The way you give to others is the way God will give to you. You need to start being generous in planting seeds in this life to harvest in the next.

Then in Mark 10:29-30 Jesus gives a guarantee about anything you give up for his sake. He says, “There is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time … and in the age to come eternal life” (ESV).  

God says that anything that you give up for his sake, anything you sacrifice for his Kingdom will be returned a hundredfold. You know how much a hundredfold is? That’s 10,000 percent interest. Do you know any stockbroker that will guarantee that? Only God and his Son can do that. They’ve been doing business with people like you for 2,000 years.

These are the promises of God. You can believe them or not. But if you don’t believe God’s promises, I have to ask you this: Why do you believe Jesus will save you and take you to Heaven? That’s the same Jesus. Why do some people trust God with their eternal salvation, but they don’t trust God with their finances? It only makes sense to trust him for both and to plant generously in faith so that you can reap a harvest.

Talk It Over

What do you expect God to give to you? Are you showing the same generosity to others?
How has God asked you to sacrifice? What was your response?
What does it mean to claim the promises of God?