It Is More Blessed To Give

While it is a hot topic (please pardon the pun), my house fire is still forefront of my mind, and I'm partially viewing life through a lens that has its filter across it.  (See my articles:  Trials by Fire and Gone in a Moment)  It is odd to me that it has only been a little more than three weeks since the event, and so much has happened in that short time.  Although the majority of the work with the insurance company is completed, I continue to deal with them as I plan my next steps, weigh future options, etc.

 

Meanwhile, useful, and at times important, things that had been at hand are now gone and I'm having to find ways to replace them or do without them.  Having been raised by Depression-era parents who came from relative poverty in the south, I learned early on how to make things work or make use work-arounds.  

For instance, because my grandmother and mother both grew up washing clothes by hand, it was a non-issue to do it again a washing machine was broken and repairs/replacement required saving money toward those ends and avoiding the pitfalls of debt.  I also remember my grandmother and my mother each having a container of various buttons of all sizes and colors and designs.  They could draw out a button from their container whenever a one popped off a shirt and needed to be replaced.  It may not be a perfect match with the originals still on the shirt, but it would be close enough to generally escape notice.

In a previous article on this subject, I mentioned that God is teaching me through this event a new lesson that is a stretch for me.  In that article, I wrote:

As these wonderful people have reached out to me, one of my sister's told me, "Part of being gracious is to learn how to receive a gift."  This proverbial gem was echoed at another Downline discipleship session as we concluded covering the book of Romans.  Paul wrote in Romans 12:13, "Contribute to the needs of the saints, and seek to show hospitality."

It has always been difficult for me to receive gifts for various reasons.  In the first half of my life, it often was done in settings that brought attention to me.  I related in my life-story that I was incredibly shy and introverted.  Attention brought on me outside of my own terms was unwelcome.  Even receiving gifts from family members at Christmas made me uncomfortable and had me standing outside the main group and making as little of opening the presents as I could.

Helping, serving, and giving are a part of who I am.  That comes very easy to me.   But now I am being taught to receive, and to receive not just with appreciation and gratitude but also with grace and humility.

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

While this saying of Jesus is not recorded in the gospel books, there are many factors that one can securely place belief in the accuracy of this passage.  

First

Luke carefully interviewed individuals including the original disciples who would have heard Jesus' sayings directly.  

Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.

    - Luke 1:1

In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when He was taken up, after He had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom He had chosen.  He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.

    - Acts 1:1-3

Second

John the Apostle states that there was so much that wasn't recorded about Jesus when he writes: 

Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.

    - John 21:25

Third

The very notion of the statement is lived out by Jesus Himself.  He set aside His divine privileges and glory to become a man.  He gave His life as a ransom for everyone who believes.  There is nothing we did or can do to have salvation from sin other than receiving the free gift of eternal life by God's grace through our faith in Jesus's atoning works.  And He commanded that we are to love others as we love ourselves.

And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the great and first commandment.  And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

- Matthew 22:37-40

And that was not just a New Testament concept.  Jesus linked His answer back to the Mosaic law.

You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

    - Leviticus 19:34

When a lawyer asked Jesus "Who is my neighbor", Jesus presented the parable of the man on the road to Damascus.  

Jesus purposefully used two men of religious stations, the priest and the Levite (both of whom ignored the injured man), and also a hated Samaritan (who cared for the man).  Jesus then asked which was the man's neighbor.  The lawyer wouldn't even state "The Samaritan" because Samaritans were so hated.  He simply answered, "The one who had mercy on him."

Jesus then commanded, "Go and do likewise."

More Blessed to Give than Receive

Honest receiving of a gift can expose and expunge pride, which God hates and opposes (Proverb 3:34, James 4:6).  It is a posture of "I can do it on my own."  (See my article: Thanks God, We'll Take It From Here)

Honest giving comes from the heart and can expose and expunge selfishness and greed.  Giving from the heart demonstrates and fosters godly love and generosity.  Giving from the heart allows God to work through you and in you.  Giving from the heart allows God to grow you spiritually.  Giving from the heart sometimes requires a sacrifice causing you to "lose" something in order for the recipient to gain something which allows God to grow you in faith.

In accepting a gift, both the giver and the receiver are are blessed by God.  In rejection of a gift, you could be denying both the giver and yourself of a blessing intended by God.

In giving, especially a sacrificial giving, you are imitating the selflessness of Christ's giving of His life in order that all who belief in Him and follow Him receive the free gift of eternal life.

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself by taking the form of a servant being born in the likeness of men.  And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.  Therefore God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

    - Philippians 2:5-11

For it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith - and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast.

    - Ephesians 2:8-9

Receiving gifts is a blessing in itself and also teaches grace and humility.  But God is pleased with, and blesses, selfless giving to those in need. 

Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

    - Hebrews 13:16 

Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.

    - Romans 12:13

But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him?

    - 1 John 3:17 

If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?

    - James 2:15-16

And he answered them, “Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise.”

    - Luke 3:11

But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

    - Matthew 6:3-4

Whoever brings blessing will be enriched, and one who waters will himself be watered.

    - Proverbs 11:25

Obviously, we love and rejoice (or at least we should) when we see God bless others.  So do not obstruct the blessings God has in store for those who follow Him and give of their abundance (or of their lack) when you are in a time of need.  God is using that situation to minister to, grow, and bless all of those involved.