Flowing
“Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.”
You know, in rugby I used to play in the scrum and we would wrestle over that rugby ball for ages. I played rugby what seems like about 100 years ago - It doesn’t happen like that these days does it? Ask the young men and they will tell you. You use it or you use it, when you get that ball in a loose scrum you have to get it out as soon as you can otherwise the referee blows the whistle and the ball goes to the other side. We have got to use what God has given us. The Lord says very clearly:
“...and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.”
- Matthew 7:2
Remember the parable in the Bible about the talents - where the businessman goes on a journey... Before he leaves he calls his men together. He gave one ten talents, the other five and to the other, he gave one talent. Just before he leaves he says:
"Do business till I come".
- Luke 19:13
He comes back and the man to who he had given ten had doubled it up. The man who had five had doubled it and the one who had one talent never used it - He hid it because he was afraid. And what did the businessman do? He took the one talent from the man and he gave it to the man who had ten talents. Even the workers themselves protested - They said: “Lord, he has got so much already.” I must be honest with you, I also said: "Lord, that doesn’t seem fair." But that is how God works. We need to use what we have if we want anything more from God.
I heard a beautiful illustration once: In Israel, there is the Jordan River, it is the life-spring of the nation. No Jordan River - no Israel. It starts on Mount Hermon, right up on the snowy mountain tops and it flows down the boundary of Israel and into the beautiful sea of Galilee. It is my favourite place in all of Israel, I love to sit on the shores of Galilee - That is where Jesus operated and most of his ministry took place.
It is vibrant, it is full of fish, full of life, irrigating fruit and produce along its shores. Then the river flows out of Galilee and carries on and flows into another lake that is called The Dead Sea. The Dead Sea is where nothing lives, nothing happens - It is salty. There is no life, there is nothing there.
Why? Because you see, with the first lake the river flows in and it flows out - and it produces. With the second lake, the river flows in but nothing flows out... We must give in order to receive.
Have a wonderful day and God bless you.