The other day my son came to me and announced that he and his wife would like to participate in helping me develop the Honey Lake Christian Youth Camp. This evoked two strong feelings in me.
One, it really made me feel old! I still like to think of him as being my little baby boy, but suddenly I realized that he is no longer a child but has indeed become a 34 year old, 200 lb plus, strapping, full grown young man, which of course means that I am old…really old.
Of course I’m kidding; the real feeling that his announcement evoked was a sense of tremendous pride. It is clear to me that both he and his wife are thinking far beyond themselves. They earnestly desire to give some of their time and money back to God’s work and have discussed it among themselves and feel that supporting this worthwhile project is one way that they can do so.
Bravo!
I believe that the two greatest demonstrations of faith and Christian maturity are witnessing to others about Christ and giving. Both require genuine faith and concerted effort. Any student of the Bible realizes that God desires such thinking and actually commands this behavior in us and He is no doubt happy when we follow His example in giving. In fact the Bible states that God loves a cheerful giver.
The thought of giving as we flounder through one of our nation’s worst, nasty economic downturns, seems out of reach to some. Of course the Bible teaches that giving comes in many different forms. Personally I believe that giving of one’s time is far more meaningful to God than giving of our treasure. In reality both are needed in order to further the ministry of Jesus Christ, but most anyone can devote some time, be it mentoring a child, reading to someone who is sick in the hospital, or mowing the yard at church.
The parable in the Bible of the poor widow who gave all that she had, (which amounted to a little less than a penny), makes us realize that if we merely go through the motions and give a small portion of our excess, we are missing the point. It is my opinion that God desires us to sacrifice and give up something that is valuable to us. It might be precious time or some important treasure, but it should be felt.
The key word is sacrifice. I will be eternally grateful for the sacrifice of God’s Son Jesus Christ on my behalf. One way I can demonstrate that love and gratitude is to sacrifice my time and money to spreading the good news of His gift to mankind.
I have learned that one cannot outgive God. He has blessed me far and away beyond what I have tried to give back to Him. It reminds me of some neighbors that I used to have. No matter what I bought or did to improve things around my home, they would always “one up” me and do a little more. Trying to keep up with God is like trying keep up with the most determined of “The Joneses”.
We cannot outgive God – plain and simple!
As nice as it is to have blessings from God, I have to be honest in that I don’t give of my time or treasure in order to receive something in return. I give because I love Jesus Christ and what He did for me on the cross.
I hope you will think about this subject some today and come up with your own meaningful project of giving today. You will no doubt be blessed for it. Remember the most important aspect of it is not just to think about it, rather to just do it!
Deut 30:8
You will again obey the LORD and follow all his commands I am giving you today. Then the LORD your God will make you most prosperous in all the work of your hands…