How literal do you take God’s word? I had a dream in which the Lord gracefully and lovingly corrected me in how I should be taking His word more seriously and literally in regards to giving and donating.
In February 2025 I had asked some people in ways I could support them financially. A week later I had given someone money sitting by a store front and blessed them in Jesus name as I gave it to them, and as I did so someone walked by and saw it. I thought that might be a good thing, that someone can see a good deed being done in Jesus’ name.
The following morning in the early hours before the sun rose I had a brief dream in which I am looking a blurry text message and a friend’s voice says I have a verse for you. I then thought of Matthew 6:3 and woke up.
The verse is:
But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing …
which is part of a larger paragraph:
Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
In previous dreams I felt quite convicted and embarrassed, but this time it was if the Lord sent me a quick reminder to say: you are doing the right thing, just don’t be so open about it, instead be discrete.
The text from a friend is interesting way to convey the message, and Jesus connects following His commandments with friendship:
You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.
The idea being that the Lord is not a cold, heartless ruler who dictates commandments from afar. Instead, He desires fellowship and friendship with us. And that friendship is connected to obedience to Him such that we can know Him and His ways:
Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.