God loves a cheerful giver. One of the character traits of any successful person is generosity. When we are generous, we not only bless others, we also feel happy and fulfilled ourselves.
Many rich people are generous, but they give secretly, or we never hear about it. Rick Warren does the reverse tithe where he gives 90% of his income. Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, Tony Robbins, Dave Remsey and many others also give generously and smartly. I am inspired by them. One of the reasons I changed my viewpoint about money is that I believe I can serve God and make more impact for the kingdom with more money than with little money. The love of money is the root of all evil, but money itself if neutral. It's like gasoline. It fuels where you are going. Give money to a wise and generous person, and that person can do a lot of good. Give money to a greedy and selfish person, that person can do a lot of harm. But because news media covers more of the bad than the good, some of us made the conclusion that having money is a bad thing. I don't believe that. There are plenty of good generous people that were not covered by the news. I think the ideal healthy happy life means we have enough to pay all our bills and a little extra to give away and have fun activities. The number one cause for divorce is money issues. If you can't pay for your basic needs, it's hard to focus on anything else, including your spouse's needs. Poverty is not a virtue, it's a disease. We will discuss money in a future blog.
We can be generous to give more than money such as our time, skills, compassion, encouragement, and listening. Sometimes it's easier to give money than to give of ourselves, but giving of ourselves is important and brings with it a special blessing.
Boaz in the Bible was generous to the poor. He left plenty of grain for the poor to collect in his fields. In his generosity, he helped Ruth and Naomi and later became part of genealogy of Jesus. (Ruth) The Shunammite woman prepared a room for Elisha because she was generous and wanted to make this godly prophet's travel a bit easier. God rewarded her generosity with a son for her, a dream came true. (2Kings 4) God rewards generosity, no question about it. There are plenty of examples in the Bible. But there are some prerequisites about giving.
"Each one must give as he has deeded in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver." 2 Cor 9:7
What does a cheerful giver looks like? I can tell you what it is not. It's not giving with strings attached. I give you this in hopes that you will do this favor for me or give back in some ways. We give cleanly, simply because we want to. In the Asian ways, when a gift is received, we are expected to give back something the same value or more. Some peope give us gifts to control us. "Remember I gave you xx a day ago? You certainly cannot say no to my request for xx now." That is not clean giving. By the way, you can do that with God too! "God I will give to this ministry, but you will have to answer my prayer as to XX." That giving gift attempting to control God. Haha... that sounds funny, doesn't it? Controling God. It doesn't work....I tried it before. God doesn't need your giving and He cannot be controlled. Give without ulterior motives or conditions.
Cheerful giving is also not giving more than we want to give. That's giving under compulsion or giving reluctantly. Oh, you bet I have done this before! "I don't really want to add another thing on my full plate but because there is no one else, I better say yes to it." "I wanted to originally give this amount, but I feel guilty giving so little, now I SHOULD probably give XXX instead." Let our YES be yes and NO be no. Don't say yes when you feel like a NO inside. What happens is that you will have resentment. Then it will be resentful giving not cheerful giving, won't it?
Cheerful giving is also not codependent giving. That means I feel a bit insecure about myself, I need to give in order to prove that I am a good person. That also means I don't give because I want your approval of me, I want you to validate me. Sometimes I give because I am afraid you will be angry with me if I don't. Those are all codependent giving. You don't give because you need something. That's not clean giving. The sad truth is that once you give codependently, you will feel good for just a little while, and then you will need to give again (like an addiction). What will result is resentment or feeling of being used. That is also NOT cheerful giving.
Healthy giving is choosing freely when we want to give, how much, and to whom. That's why the verse says to give what we have decided in our hearts. How do we know that? God will let us know. If God is generous, and we are most like Him when we are being generous. Then He will guide us and give us clear direction if we seek His will. Get very quiet so you can hear His still small voice speaking to your heart, then you obey that voice and watch the blessings flow from heaven. A good place to start is giving a tenth of everything. Tiething is Biblical and God said we can test Him on this Just try it.
You might say, I don't have enough to give. That's non-sense. Rebuke that fear right now. Not giving blocks the flow of Life energy, like the Dead Sea. If everything just flows in and nothing flows out, soon the flow will stop. One of my favorite stories of Elisha and the widow with a little oil. Elisha told the widow to get all sort of containers and pour that little olive oil out to the containers, when there is no more containers, the flow stops. (2Kings 4) When you do not pour into others, the flow stops. In the same passage of the above verse, go and read 2Cor 9:6-12. v6Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. V10 "He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your need for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness." v11"You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God." Isn't that beautiful? Happy ending awaits when you give generously and cheerfully.
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