Friday, January 9, 2009
The heart of true giving expects no returns.
The bible says it is more blessed to give than to recieve. You can give without loving but you cannot love without giving. The world we are living in emphasizes taking. But yet the kingdom of God is always about giving. All through society now, we see people wanting to gain power, knowledge and wealth for their own glory, for their own selfishness, at the expense of others. My fren's grandma just passed away, but yet the family is arguing, getting into fights over the issue of money. She is getting so frustrated and dont know what to do even as the sad news of her grandma hit her. Such is the state of society, greediness and selfishness abound.
But yet, sometimes, I see non christians being very considerate and giving. There is this friend of mine who has been sending me christmas card by post nearly every year without fail even sometimes, I forget to send him back. He used to give me expensive presents every year last time when we were still schooling... Such is the attitude of true giving, one that really gives from the heart, even when the other person does not give him back anything in return.
This is also true in the area of relationships. All too often, in a relationship, it is usually one person putting in more effort, contributing more than the other party. Very seldom can we see both parties putting in the same amount of effort and hard work. It is hard to measure who puts in more as well. Do we measure by the amount of time one initiates to spend with the other? Or do we measure by the amount of presents one party gives to the other? No. That is not the main thing. And that should not be an issue. The issue is whether one has been giving, to the best of his ability or if not, one has been committing to a relationship or tried anything to make it work. Of course, expectation is always there. We cannot think that a person who puts in effort must really be forbidden to expect anything in return. It is just like a mother putting in effort to look after the kids in the family. She wakes up early in the morning, sends them to school, do the grocery shopping, cleans the home, washes the clothes, and cooks when the kids come back home from school. The mother can be giving out of duty or true love, but she can also expect that the kids will be obedient and filial to her. Even when sometimes, the kids do get rebellious and refuse to listen to her, she still loves her children unconditionally to give the best to them. Therefore, expectation can happen as we expect something from others even as we give. But the point here is the motivation in giving. The very initial motive of why we are doing what we are doing. If the heart is right, then when we do not get what we expect we should get, at least we do know that we have been wanting to contribute in the relationship and trying our best to make it work. God expects us to be like that.
Having said that, giving to God operates in a similar way. Our response to give should be always out of the desire to bless and to love. Giving in expectancy for our blessings and God's providance are secondary. Of course, God promises in His word that if we give, He will not shortchange us but those who sow abundantly shall reap abundantly. With such a promise at hand, we can really afford to keep on giving in faith until our breakthrough comes. Therefore, people who only give for a period of time gives because they have been wanting that blessing to come...so much that their giving is out of a desire to get. But if we truly give out of love, then it will be a life style of continual giving, just like how Jesus continues to give throughout his ministry and is also giving now, by interceding for us and giving eternal life to those who are saved.
Having said that, for 2009, should we start giving ourselves more to God and to our friends and loved ones in various ways? Let this year be a breakthrough year for me and for all my friends. God bless.=)