“Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom…” (Luke 6:38).
The story is told about Widow Brown who was praying for bread. Her next-door neighbor was an atheist named Thomas Green. Mr. Green heard the good widow praying and decided to play a trick on her. After buying two loaves of bread at the store, he climbed up on her house and dropped the bread down the chimney.
When she saw the bread. Widow Brown immediately began to thank the Lord for answering her prayer. Irritated, Mr. Green called down the chimney: “Widow Brown, this is your neighbor, Tom Green. Jesus didn’t send you that bread, I did. I did it just to prove to you that there is no God.” The widow’s response was, “Jesus, I want to thank You for the bread…even if the devil himself had to bring it!”
One of the more interesting aspects of this verse from Luke is the absence in the original Greek of the word men. Instead of saying, “…shall men given into your bosom,” the original text simply reads, “…shall give into your bosom.” The New King James Version reflects this fact when it renders this phrase, …will be put into your bosom.
This reading takes the lid off the Lord and allows Him to meet our need in any one of an endless variety of ways. To confine the source of our receiving to men is too restrictive. Let’s let God meet our need as He wills in His infinite wisdom and out of His unlimited supply.
Another translation distills the essence of this verse: “You give to men, and God will give to you.”
Excerpt permission granted by Harrison House Publishers