Free to Give

Just admit it. If you are like most people, you believe that in order to have more you have to keep as much of what you get as you can. That’s the reason as soon as anyone makes even the slightest suggestion of how you might give some of what you’ve got to support their organization or advance their cause, you start looking for the nearest exit.

After all, you have your own organization to support and your own cause to advance; and it takes more and more to keep all those needs supplied each month—and who knows what it is going to take next month…or in six months.

You know that Jesus said, “Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal” (Matthew 6:19); so you have hired an exterminator, packed it all in Space Bags®, and installed an advanced security system. You really are not interested in hearing much, if anything, about the benefits of generosity.

Before you go, let me ask you to consider that making the most of your commitment to give may be a key component of making the most of your life. Consider what Jesus said, “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap” (Luke 6:38). That certainly sounds like giving is not necessarily about ending up with less. Perhaps it does raise the question, though, of who gives to you.

Giving begins with God. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son” (John 3:16). God is the infinite and perfect Giver. Giving is integral to who God is. Giving is central to God’s character. When you give you identify with God and reflect God’s likeness.

Giving is at the heart of the Christian life, at the heart of the Gospel, and at the heart of God. God gives everything that has value. God gave you life—physical life in the blood that courses through your body, and spiritual life in the blood of his son, Jesus Christ. God has set the pattern for giving, and there is no worthier goal than to give like God gives.

Consider this, too: when you give like God—and when you get the benefit and the blessing of giving like that—what you are actually giving is not yours. Everything belongs to God. He has only placed it in your care for a season. May that paradox liberate you from the bondage of trying to accumulate as much as you can or striving to constantly have bigger and better things than your neighbors.