“In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ”” (Acts 20:35, ESV)
We know this to be true. It is important to serve the needs of others. Jesus tells us, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
At the same time, we often have difficulty practicing what we know to be true. We come up short practicing generosity. The giving that we do practice is often motivated out of guilt and comes from our left-overs rather than our first fruits.
Why is it so hard to practice generosity?
But two weeks ago, we learned that she was no longer at the orphanage. Her family had taken her back. The truth is that I am not sure if that is a good thing or not. Yes, she is back with her parents. But she will probably not have the opportunity to go to school, and it will be much less certain where her next meal will come. A real fear is that her parents took her back so that they could use her to beg on the streets for food and money.
It is heart-breaking. We wonder what the point was. We gave so that she could have a better life and hope for the future, but that was not the result. It is easy to say we are not going to do this again.
Maybe you have experienced disappointment with your generosity.
- Maybe you ever went out of your way to help someone? But even though you went out of your way to help them, it seemed that you were more intent on helping them, than they were helping themselves.
- Maybe you gave and served a new mission start that never started. You poured your heart and soul into something that never came about.
- Maybe you served a cause to help keep the doors open, but the doors still closed.
We have experiences in the past where we were less satisfied with the results of our generosity. It is leads us to be resistant in the future. We find it hard to get the motivation to give again.
If you are reluctant to give and serve because you have been “burned” in the past, consider your motivation. Often the motivation to give is to experience the happy ending. Unfortunately, the happy ending we expect is not always guaranteed.
Giving and serving must always be done in faith. It is to have faith that God will bring about the right and necessary ending. We will trust him that he knows what is best even when things don’t work out as we planned.
In Psalm 112:7, it say the man who fears the Lord:
He is not afraid of bad news; his heart is firm, trusting in the LORD.” (Psalm 112:7, ESV)
The blessing of giving does not always come on this side of the veil of eternity. When we give and serve, we are making eternal investments. We may not see the results now, but there are often ripples that go out from our generosity that we will never recognize until we fully enter into the kingdom.
I am reminded of the old Ray Boltz song called “Thank You for Giving to the Lord.” The song is about a man who goes to heaven. While he is there, he meets people he never knew on earth but who are now there because of his generosity. The point is that the fruit of your generosity is not always seen, but by faith.
Thought for the Day
How can you generously serve the Lord, trusting he will use your generosity for his good purposes?
Good words. Hard lesson. Someday I just might get it right. Thanks Pastor Phil.
I make an item that I love to give away & I usually add a scripture. I am amazed at how many want to know how much it costs…or, if they want another they offer to pay. They even tell me I could sell them at craft fairs. Sometimes it’s not easy to be generous – they think there is a cost. Thank God we don’t have to PAY for our redemption – all we have to do is ask. Thank you, Jesus.