Topic: Be Generous and Cheerful [Monday December 25, 2017]
So that you may surely learn to sense what is vital, and approve and prize what is excellent and of real value [recognizing the highest and the best, and distinguishing the moral differences], and that you may be untainted and pure and unerring and blameless [so that with hearts sincere and certain and unsullied, you may approach] the day of Christ [not stumbling nor causing others to stumble]. — Philippians 1:10
As Christians, we should be generous people, giving whatever we can whenever we can. And that doesn’t just mean money—we can give help, encouragement, time, talents and forgiveness.
This means we can’t let selfishness get in the way. A lot of people are stingy, clinging to what they have and afraid to give it up. Others aren’t stingy in their actions, but they are stingy in their hearts, giving because they feel obligated, not because they really want to. But this isn’t the way God calls us to give.
Second Corinthians 9:7 tells us, God loves (He takes pleasure in, prizes above other things, and is unwilling to abandon or to do without) a cheerful (joyous, “prompt to do it”) giver [whose heart is in his giving].
If you think about it, when we give our lives to God, everything we have is His anyway—it no longer belongs to us. We should be givers, using our resources the way He wants us to.
Give cheerfully today. It pleases God, and those who give cheerfully are happy, fulfilled, and highly effective.
Prayer Starter: God, I make up my mind purpose in my heart right now to be a cheerful giver. Show me how I can generously give to You and the people in my life today.
From Joyce Meyer’s Ministries