"Tim, do you have five bucks I can have to put gas in my car?"
When my friend asked me that yesterday, time stopped. The grand and historic trees around Medina shook. Thunder and lighting clanged inside my heart producing a freakish hail storm that pounded black and blue marks on the skin of soul. Basically the earth stopped rotating on its axis.
I looked in his eyes thinking: LORD? That is my five dollars. My last five dollars! The last five dollars in my wallet! That's my gas money. I need gas and are you asking me to give it to him!? Are you asking me to put his needs before my own!?
I was near the point of cursing at myself but said, "Yes, I do. Here you go brother."
And I gave him my five dollars.
Five dollars may not seem like much to you, but to me...it's HUGE! When you're living on a missionary salary, five bucks goes a long way. You can get a foot long sub at Subway for five bucks. You can buy a few gallons of gas to drive to and from the cafe during the week. Or it's lunch money for Mollie. She loves cheesy dipper day! Five bucks is huge to me.
I need to stop right here and ask you something. Are you like me? Do those same selfish thoughts bounce around the mind of your heart? Or am I the only one? I hope I'm not alone.
God is a reciprocal being. The things we do and say will be done and said unto us. He promises in His word. And it's not an Old Testament or a New Testament concept. It is covenantal and based on who God is. It's based on His character. It's true throughout Scripture because God is the same God yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 
13:8).
It's also a basic law of nature called reaping and sowing. He designed this law. If you plant a tomato seed in the backyard garden, then you'll get a tomato plant. You expect to get a tomato plant. You won't get a new computer. Computers do not come from tomato seeds planted in the yard. And if you don't plant a tomato seed, then you won't get a tomato plant. (Sowing and reaping, reaping and sowing, baby. It's true and it works.)
You give five bucks to a friend in need and you'll get five bucks back. Sometimes more.
Now, you may not receive back, or reap, everything you've sown while on this spinning ball of dirt. Your reward may be in heaven. God, being sovereign, can give and do as He pleases (Psalm 115:3). He may choose to wait to reciprocate the things you've done or given.
The funny thing about Godly reciprocation is the fact that you won't be worried about that five bucks when you get to heaven if you did not receive it in return while on earth. You won't even ask God about it or ask Him to give it back to you, because HE will be your reward. And enjoying the presence of Almighty God for eternity is so much more rewarding than receiving a measly five bucks for that one time you emptied your wallet. (Actually it will be less than that because of the rapid devaluation of the American dollar.)
Godly Reciprocation Principle #1: "He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him" (NIV, John 14:21).
Godly Reciprocation Principle #2: "If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in His love" (NIV, John 15:10).
Godly Reciprocation Principle #3: "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" (NIV, Luke 6:38).
Godly Reciprocation Principle #4: "That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved" (NIV, Romans 10:9).
Godly Reciprocation Principle #5: "See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess. But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him" (NIV, Deuteronomy 30:15-19).
Godly Reciprocation Principle #6: "You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised" (NIV, Hebrews 10:36).
There are so many more examples of this truth in Scripture. My six barely scratches the surface but you get the idea. Try putting these principles to the test. See if they work. If you don't know where to start, try them out on me and see how God reciprocates. I won't mind being your test subject for this experiment. I make a perfect guinea pig. By the way, I gave my last five bucks away yesterday and...
...a different friend handed me a crisp, cool fifty dollar bill today! Man oh man, the Lawd is good!!
Uh oh, I wonder if He has plans for me to give this fifty dollar bill away too? The cycle continues. Reciprocation here we go...