Devotional
Giving Back
Luke 12:48 “Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.”
Take a moment to reflect on how the Lord has provided for you. Sit in reverence of his blessings for you: physically, financially, mentally, and more. Now I want you to think about one of the most overlooked yet important blessings we have ever been given. Time. The Lord is unfathomably gracious with the time that He has given us. So now that we have a picture of how much the Lord has given, I want us to reflect on how we have responded. Of course, there is nothing that we can do to earn this generosity; the Lord has simply provided it out of His love for us. But what is important is how we show God that we recognize His giving and that we are grateful for it. That is what Luke 12:48 is all about. We have all been given so much. What have we given back? What does it look like to give back? Well, it may look different for each of us depending on the gifts that the Lord has given us, but the overarching theme of giving back is Matthew 25:40.
Matthew 25:40 says, “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.'”
Somewhere, at some point in your life, someone has gone out of their way to provide for you, to love you, to believe in you. The Lord is calling us to acknowledge that blessing and respond to it by paying it forward. Much has been given to every one of us throughout our lives. It’s time we responded to those blessings in the way that the Lord has called us to. We need to realize that our lives are not meant for self-serving, but for selfless sacrifice; not for comfort, but for calling; not for idleness, but for impact. How much time, money, energy, ability, etc. are you holding back from those who need it, wasting it on serving yourself? All that we have has been given to us, and the only way to communicate gratitude for those gifts is to give graciously to others, as the Lord has given to us.
By Caden Hensler, an HPU student with a major in Finance and a minor in Spanish
