“What! Giving again?” I asked in dismay,
“And must I keep giving and giving away?”
“Oh, no, said the angel, piercing me through,
Just give till the Father stops giving to you.”
Author unknown
The Bible speaks a lot about giving. Come to think about it God was the original giver. Remember when He created man, the final and crowned gem of His creation, He breathed into him “the breath of life; and man became a living soul” Genesis 2:7. You see He is life and “He gives to all life, and breath, and all things” Acts 17:25. But because of sin we fell by the wayside from fellowship with Him; still, “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son …” John 3:16, who in turn “gave Himself for us …” Titus 2:14. Because God is a giving God He created us to be a giving people! Any resistance in us to giving reflects a part of that fallen nature that still needs to be crucified! The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 9:7 that giving should be from a joyful heart, “… for God loves a cheerful giver.” Giving includes finances, being the vehicle of commerce and trade in this world, and representing our time labor, and store. However giving covers a much wider range than just finances, come back next week for the second part on joyful giving.
Give
-By Rose Hill
Give when your life is being blessed,
Give when you are wanting.
Give when there’s many things around,
Give when you are hunting.
Give when you can go out to dine,
Give when food is hard to find.
Give when your clothes are fancy and fine,
Give when your shoes are so old they won’t shine.
Give when your house is big and elite,
Give when it’s on an old slum street.
For those who give will always find,
That God will give back to them sometime.
Scripture quotations are from the New King James Version copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson Co. used by permission.