What does Giving Mean Compared to what God Shows us—R Fritz
Giving is not about one certain time of year, it is about all of the year. Too many people find that during the Holiday season, Christmas time we should give all we can. When I ask people about the rest of the year, they have nothing to say. Jesus did not say just give at one time of the year nor did he show us we were supposed to do that, so why do people do that. There is need all year. It’s about making people aware of what they are doing but also letting them know what they should be doing all year. We have been taught to give during the Holiday season.
Giving is not just money, it is our time or our acts of kindness. Money is what most people think of when giving whether it be a person or a group. Money requires less time spent with people. Time requires using as much of us as we want or being somewhere at a particular agreed upon time. Acts of kindness are deeds that we do for people. We can also give wisdom freely. Giving are actions giving something valuable we have to somebody without receiving something in return. We are looking to take care of their needs. Acts 20:35 says with Jesus giving some words is I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” We feel good when give something to somebody.
We love to do good things. God wired us so we would want to help people. God gave his only son for us. 1 John 4:9-13 says “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation (satisfaction) for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he is in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.” We were given God’s Spirit, that is why God’s love lives in us as well as wanting to give people what they need. We just need for God’s love to take over our thinking and show through our actions.
The biggest act of love is to lay down our life for somebody. That is “giving” it all, every ounce of life we have, money, wisdom. How many people are going to do that! We have all fallen short on what we can do for people. John 15:12-15 says and this is Jesus, speaking “This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.” Jesus says we are friends, friends that if we obey his commandments know what Jesus knows. There is no greater love than to lay down our life for a friend, these are Jesus’s words. Our choice lies in being surrendered where we let the Holy Spirit direct our path.
We are supposed to give with all of our heart. God knows our heart and shows us through the Holy Spirit what we are supposed to do. We just have to listen and hear how we are to give, whether it be money or our time. 2 Corinthians 9:6-7 says “But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loves a cheerful giver.” If we give because somebody told us to or we think we should but our heart is not in it or is not right we will not be blessed because God loves a cheerful giver. We do not do what somebody else does, we are all different and God treats us different, we give what “we” are supposed to give. The Holy Spirit gives us what that is, we just need to ask. When we give an offering it is called a freewill offering, nobody holds our arm behind our back to make us.
Time and our expenses are the gift that most people and some churches do not believe is a gift. Our time is always worth something because we only have so much of it. We do not know how much we have changed people’s lives. Some people we have given a reason to live, most have given them hope and some a way to live their life because they believe in something bigger than themselves. There is a quote not found in the Bible “give a man a fish and feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime.” We can teach people to work for their needs.
We also have a spiritual need that needs to be taken care of. We need to point people in the direction of Jesus. That spiritual need is life changing with everybody finding the direction we need to go down that narrow road to eternal life. 2 Corinthians 3-5 says “Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not on tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart. And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward: Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God” The Spirit of God is our lifeline with God’s commandments and ways written in our heart.
When we give to people, we are investing in them. Our money, time, acts of kindness show these people we care. These are people we do not necessarily know. It also shows our love for them. Love changes people, it is why Jesus is love. When Jesus died the Holy Spirit would show us that same love not the love we knew, God’s love will even change the people that do not like us. When we are surrendered to the Holy Spirit God’s love shows through us.
People do not care what we know until they know that we care. Giving to people in whatever way we can changes the world to be like Jesus. It is something that we do with the Holy Spirit showing us what to say to show our love and giving back to somebody else. Let’s show our love and give every day. God Bless.
