THE MANY FACES OF GIVING - PART 2

In pre-blog days, I wrote a brief devotional for my family entitled “The many faces of giving”. The focus of the article was to explore creative ways to have a generous spirit and outlook on life. I believe that the true heart of the Christ life is found in giving and forgiving. (Matthew 6:38) We are recipients of God’s goodness and salvation because God is a giver (John 3:16) and we are to follow His lead.

Like all great subjects, giving is one that we must continually explore in order to just begin to fathom its meaning. A few days ago I was writing for one of the ministries that I occasionally do work for and I came across some interesting insights on the story in Acts 3 of Peter and John on their way to the temple for prayer when they were accosted by a beggar
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There are several things that caught my attention about this story. Peter and John had seen this man many times before so why should today be different? The beggar was at this same gate everyday but what was different about today? Peter looked at the man and said, “I don’t have any money”. I’m going to take a little liberty with this story and suggest that on other days they did have money and previously had given to the crippled beggar. Today was different because their pockets were empty, so the response was, “I don’t have any but what I have I give you.” And by faith, Peter helped the cripple stand up and the miracle was on.

In Mark 6:30-44 the story of the feeding of the five thousand is told. At the end of a long day the disciples came to Jesus and said, “Its late, we need to send this crowd away so that they can go and get something to eat.” Jesus responded, “You give them something to eat” (v37) and the disciples went into a panic trying to figure out the cost of feeding this many people. The disciples response was purely natural and human “Jesus wants us to feed them. How are we going to accomplish that? How much money do we have among us? Do we have enough to buy enough food?” Jesus stopped the disciples and said to them “How many loaves of bread do you have? Go and see.” (v38) and again the miracle was on.

In both stories the principle was essentially the same “What do you have?” What is in your hand?”

As a giver, I give from where I am and from what I have. I can’t begin to tell you how many times I have heard people refer to the great sums of money they are believing God for and when He gives it boy oh boy are they going to be generous. I thank God for the faith that is being expressed but to that person I believe the Lord asks a question “what are you doing now with what you have in your hand?”
Generosity begins with what you have, not what you are believing God for!

If you have heard good teaching on generosity but have never embraced it because you are waiting for a big pay raise, a bonus, an inheritance or perhaps to win the lottery there is a very strong likely hood that you will never be a generous giver. The same excuses that you are making now you will be making when your income is two or ten times the size that it currently is.

One final story, this one from Mark 12:41-44. Jesus was sitting watching people put their gifts into the treasury at the Temple. After a while Jesus called his disciples together and talked to them about what he had watched. The Lord told them that He watched a poor widow and some very rich people put their gifts into the treasury. Jesus commented that although the widow only gave a very tiny amount, probably by today’s standards just a few cents, she actually out gave the rich. The widow gave everything she had while the rich gave a portion of their surplus.

Generosity is not measured by the size of the gift but by our commitment and the sacrifice that it represents. In this story the rich gave a portion of the surplus they had, there was nothing sacrificial about what they did. The poor lady gave sacrificially, she gave it all . The rich simply gave God a tip, the way we would tip a food server or a taxi driver. The poor lady was truly generous; the rich, while they gave a larger gift were actually stingy, greedy and somewhat insulting.

What do you have in your hand and what are you doing with it?