IT IS MORE BLESSED TO GIVE THAN TO RECEIVE.

 

EVENING DEVOTION by James Smith

JUNE 4

 

-Acts 20:35

I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring

 ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the

words of the Lord Jesusm how he said,

It is more blessed to give than to receive.

 
These are very remarkable words.
 
They were acted upon by Jesus.
 
They contain their very principle which influenced him in eternity,
  which induced him to leave heaven for earth, and
  which actuates him still.
 
He urged this saying upon his disciples,
  so that it is probable that it became
   a kind of proverbial saying among them.
 
He has preserved it for our instruction and admonition.
 
Receiving implies wasn’t and unfulfilled desires;
  giving supposed a possession,
  and honourable trust.
 
Giving manifests a generous disposition, and a concern for the comfort of others.
 
It is acting like God, who created that he might give,
  redeemed that he might give,
    glorifies that he may give.
 
It is a source of pure pleasure.
 
Let us remember these words of the Lord Jesus
  when we go to his throne and draw encouragement
   from them to ask for great blessings, to ask often,
    to ask with confidence: and let us encourage others to go to him,
     assuring them that he considers it more blessed to give than to receive.
 
Let us walk by this rule, prudently, plainly.
  Notwithstanding discouragement.
 

The man who marks from day to day,

In generous acts his radiant way,

Treads the same path the Saviour trod,

The path to glory and to God.

 
James Smith