When times are hard financially and we're near the end of our resources, we naturally look for help. We tap family and friends, and even research all the government help plans available. Every one of those sources is finite; that is, limited in ability to help as many as need help.

            But there is a source that is unlimited. Almighty God reigns in heaven, owns the cattle on a thousand hills (Psalm 50:10), and declares in Haggai 2:8, "The silver is Mine and the gold is Mine." Logic dictates that we look to God, who is the source of everything, to meet our needs.

            God does not veil the means whereby we can receive His abundant blessings. Every creature enjoys the general providence of God, in that we enjoy the richness of life provided on the earth, but there is another level deeper than God caring for His creatures: "Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them" (Matthew 6:26).

            There is a level of tapping into God that only comes when we give liberally and obediently at His direction. God challenges His people in the Old Testament book of Malachi. The people were obviously hoarding their resources and were not giving the prescribed offerings to God.

            God said, "Will a man rob God? Yet you rob Me. But you ask, 'How do we rob You?' In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse--the whole nation of you--because you are robbing Me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house. Test Me in this, says the LORD Almighty. And see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have enough room for it" (Malachi 3:8-10).

            The floodgates in heaven are huge. They obviously are holding back the immense blessing of God that He desires to pour on us if we will just trust and obey Him.

            Jesus speaks of God's abundant provision in Luke 6:38: "Give and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."

            The verse closes with a very key thought: "with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." Somebody said, "The hole you give through is the hole you receive through." How large is the channel of giving we have established in our lives?

            Most of us do not want to give, but we do want to receive. If somehow we could release the grip we have on the stuff we call ours and learn to give, we would be amazed at God's response. There are no gimmicks; God is faithful.

            God is all about bailouts. The ultimate bailout is to be delivered from eternal death and destruction by giving our lives to Jesus Christ, who has provided salvation for all who believe in His death, burial, and resurrection.

            God is also looking for people whose hearts are committed to Him and His ways. 2 Chronicles 16:9 says, "For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him."

            So in these times, let us not look east, west, north, or south. Let us look up to Almighty God, who has enough to put all of us over the top.