Give cheerfully

Something’s been bugging me for a while now and I’d like to share it with you. Giving is fun and quite easy if you have it in your heart to do so and I believe we all do. God did not make us to be selfish or self-centered he meant for us to go out and help as many people as we can. Many people however have hesitations about giving to others. ” I’ve worked hard for my money and my things, why should I have to give it away to someone who doesn’t deserve it”. That’s something I hear quite often and not just from non-christians. I was surprised at the amount of people who are Christians that don’t believe in giving to the less fortunate. Some of you might be wanting to stop reading this but before you do let me show you a couple verses that just might change your mind. The first one is John 3:16 for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. Let’s think about that for a second God gave his most precious child so that we could have everlasting life and it’s hard for us to give someone down on their luck a dollar. I struggled with this for a little while myself so don’t feel bad if giving doesn’t come naturally to some of us. It took me asking God to soften my hardened heart in order to give. Matthew 5:42 give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you. So in this verse he’s not asking us to pick and choose he’s saying that if someone asks for help we should be willing to help. It used to be when someone would ask me for money I would give them money if I had it but I would be judging them saying,” This person is probably going to use it on booze or drugs.” Matthew 7:1-6 “do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. There’s one more scripture that I would like to share with you and that is an important one just like the rest. Matthew 26:36-40 master, which is the greatest commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, thou shalt Love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. There are plenty more scriptures that support giving and I’m not going to read them all to you but I would like to share one more with you. 2 Corinthians 9:6-7 the point is this: whoever sows apparently will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. So this means that we should be happy about what we are giving and who we are giving it to. Not doing it through gritted teeth or just because. Doing it because we actually love and have that love in our heart. I cannot tell you how many times my wife and I have given to different people and it’s addicting. It has filled our hearts full of joy and love the more and more we do it. I urge you today if this is a stumbling block for you to pray to God and ask him to show you how to be a cheerful giver and who to give to. I promise you it’ll change your life for the better. If this is your wish today then I challenge you to pray with me and change your life. Dear heavenly father, thank you so much for all that you do for us and all that you’ve given us. Lord we want to be like you in so many different ways but we know that we can’t achieve that all at once. This morning we come to you on bended knee humbly asking for you to massage our hardened hearts, so that we can go out and love thy neighbor, help the neighbor any way we can. Help us to be joyful and cheerful when we give instead of cold and judgmental. We’ve all been down that road when we’ve needed something in our lives Lord and people have been there to help bless us through you to get us to where we needed to be. Thank you heavenly Father for your son dying for our sins on the cross showing us the ultimate act of love and giving. Thank you for always being with us, in US, and around us, in Jesus precious name amen!