19 "Don't store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. 21Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be. ... 24 "No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. ... 31"So don't worry about these things, saying, 'What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?' 32 These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. 33 Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.
Spiritually speaking, I see two points here with the "pay it forward" concept. First, it is not karma (e.g., you do something nice for someone else, and then something nice will happen to you). The truth is, the things of this world are corrupt, so we should invest as little as possible into the things of this world, but only as they may be used to advance the Kingdom. It's a no-brainer when you look at it from this perspective: invest what will decay and disappear (money and time) into what will last forever (God and His Kingdom). The second point that I see is that it is not the action alone that secures the investment in eternity, it is the action coupled with the attitude of your heart. If you love money, but you grudgingly "give" to the church, then you are only fooling yourself. We must have a joyful and cheerful heart before the Lord, and then He will motivate our hands to give humbly to Him out of a loving response to His infinite love.
Heavenly Father, please purify my heart so that I will joyfully and cheerfully give the time and money that you have trusted me to steward for your Kingdom. Lord, please use my life to honor you and grow your Kingdom. Lord, please guard me from wasting my life and the opportunities that I have on silly things of this world that are really not silly but evil and wicked. Lord, please turn my heart away from greed, pride, and lust. Lord, I need to see you so that I will know how valuable you are and seek after you only instead of being distracted by the things of this world. Lord, please give me your eyes to see my life, my opportunities, and the people around me from your perspective so that I will know how I can cooperate with you in your Kingdom. I love you, Lord, and I need you. Please take hold of me and use me today through the anointing of the Holy Spirit so that I can be a witness and disciple-maker for Jesus. Amen.
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