“It is more blessed to give than to receive.” Acts 20:35
“Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.” Luke 6:38
We are, by nature, highly concerned about having enough time and resources to sustain our own life and our tribe. This concern easily morphs into a life-consuming grind. Very soon, we find ourselves living each day in the desperation of feeling as if we will never have enough. There’s never enough time and we don’t have enough money. Then—we become slaves to both—time and money. This is exactly where our enemy wants us to stay. Enslaved in paper chains. We are enslaved in a prison we don’t belong in. We CAN be free!
My friend, God’s plan for learning to give keeps us free from this dangerous and deadly cycle!
But being in on God’s plan is impossible without a relationship with Him. First, we must be born again. Second, we must live a life of complete surrender to His wise and wonderful plan for our life. His ways are far above our ways. The rich manifestation of God’s presence in our life is best seen by how HE uses the time and resources HE GIVES to us! He runs the world.
Do we really think God lacks the ability to run our life better than we do?
My friend, God continues to show me the outer limits of what He can do with me when I place Him in charge. Quite frequently, someone will ask me, “How do you have time to write daily devotionals, record podcasts, write and record music, run a law practice, be a mom and friend, disciple people and also—take care of yourself?” My reply is always “I don’t; God does.” Allowing God to manage the time and resources He gives me does two important things: 1. It allows me amazing opportunities to glorify Him; and 2. It makes me more dependent upon Him because I KNOW it will ALL fall apart without Him.
And—I wouldn’t want it any other way.
But, yielding my life to God is a daily battle because we have three enemies who never let up on us. Ah, but the MORE I experience the powerful presence of God, the LESS I want to operate under my own power. It grows my desire to give more time and resources as directed by the Spirit of God because God’s presence is the greatest addiction.
There is nothing in this physical world that blesses us as much as our relationship with God.
We will never run out of God. So this should be our starting point for giving—right? Think about it. If we have a deep knowledge that the best thing we possess is our relationship with God, and we know He will “never leave us or forsake us,” then everything else we possess is secondary and we can give freely, without fear, as God directs.
BUT—if God is NOT our most precious possession, then it is no wonder we are afraid to give. If money, acceptance, time, possessions, position, etc., are our most important possessions, then since they are not guaranteed to last—OF COURSE—we will become miserly with them. Thus, our generosity (or lack thereof) is because our loves are disordered. We think we need earthly things more than we need the One Who CREATED all the earthly things we crave. We must reorder our loves so our love for God is ALWAYS deeper than our love for our stuff or even another person!
Reordering our loves is healthy for our soul and places us in God’s stream of blessings.
