Act 10:1-5
There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band,
A devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God always.
He saw in a vision evidently about the ninth hour of the day an angel of God coming into him and saying unto him, Cornelius.
And when he looked on him, he was afraid, and said, What is it, Lord? And he said unto him, Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God.
And now send men to Joppa, and call for one Simon, whose surname is Peter:
Giving is love. You are either giving time, attention, or resources. Our charity or act of giving enhances the chances of our prayer been answered. Giving is an act of service and should be done the right way and at the right time.
Let us take out time to understand why it is necessary to give and why we should give wholeheartedly and not forcefully or grudgingly. Let us be International about giving somebody something.
Our prayers and charity work hand in hand. Our prayers to God can't take the place of our charity to people and there are places our charity will get, there are measures our charity will get to that our prayers can not and there are places our prayers can go but our charity won't.
We must not give when we have enough but we must learn to give until it becomes a part of us
If we do not learn to give in the small times, we will never learn to give when we have enough.
Don't be careless in your giving, but give profitably.
Don't give to be applauded or clapped for
Don't give to be worshipped
Don't give to receive. God isn't a Ponzi scheme, giving to people isn't a Ponzi scheme, so, when we are giving, we should learn to give wholeheartedly.
God is a God of motive before actions. He blesses our motives before our actions. He looks at our motives of giving, before blessing us.
He does not bless us because we gave, but He blesses us because of the motives behind our giving. As a Christian, it is advisable and needful that we learn the act of giving our we are been taught in the scripture by Jesus using an example of the woman who gave her last token.
Don't give grudgingly like Ananias and Sapphira. Why feeling bitter about giving when it is in your hand to decide what to give. Don't give at pleasure only. Give beyond your current level of finance, you open yourself up for something.
The same way our prayers can pave the way and open doors for us and also go to places we can not go, the same way our charity or act of giving can open doors, paving the way and breakthrough, and also go to places we can not go on our behalf.
Our acts of giving and prayers work hand in hand. Don't forget to pray because you are giving and don't forget to give because you are praying. Pray for people whilst you give to others.
Learn to know when to pray and when to give to someone in need. When we give to people in need, we give them hope of a better tomorrow and we give them that assurance that God still got them in the plan no matter what may be their current situation.
Give sparingly and you shall receive abundantly. Don't wait until you have too much, a show or act of love can go a long in healing a broken heart.
Give happily even in the service of God and see Him work wonders in your life. Don't give because the church authority forced you to, or because you want to be tagged a good person, but give with the knowledge that it is God who sees the heart of a person and rewards them accordingly.
Reaching out to people no matter what it may be at the point they are in need is one of the best things we can do for ourselves and those people because it goes a long way to save them.
Let the Lord use you as an instrument. Let the word of God be heard by simply share your love and blessings.