On Pentecost, we celebrate God’s sending of His Holy Spirit to be with us for all of eternity. If we look to John 7:37-39 we read, ‘On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.?? But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
Christ tells us that if we thirst, that coming to Him, He will take care of our thirst. In fact, He even tells us that for all who believe on Him, they will have the living waters flowing out of their hearts, as well. This brings to mind that Jesus is a cheerful giver. Some years ago, many people collected Enesco’s Precious Moments figurines. Sam Butcher was one of the designers of those figurines, and one such piece was titled ‘God loveth a cheerful giver.?
When I think about our Lord and Savior being a cheerful giver, and all that we receive from Him, I think about how or what we give back to Him. In our hearts and minds we think, ‘Well, how much do I have to give to the church to make them happy?? or, ‘How much do I owe this week?? We find giving a chore. We don’t give from the first fruits, instead we give out of necessity or out of obligation. Whatever happened to giving from our heart?
If giving was a chore, then just what does God owe us? God created us perfect, without sin. Yet, we became sinful and unclean. Since we broke the relationship with God by Adam’s fall into sin, He owes us nothing, yet, He still freely gives us the living water, His Word, so that we may receive eternal life. If we are giving back to God as a chore, then we truly have a wrong attitude in all of this. Instead, we should be asking ‘Dear God, what can I give to You, because of my love for You?? Another way to say it would be, ‘Dear Lord, for all that You have freely given to me, this is what I have, but please help me to give You even more in the future.?
My Dear Christian friends, God is truly a cheerful giver, and we never want for what we really need. God takes care of every single true need that we have and we are certainly cheerful takers, but we seldom are cheerful givers.
My grandfather became a Christian some six months before he was called home to live with Christ eternally. One day, he asked me how much he should be putting in the offering plate. I told him that he should give from his heart and that it is not all about money. I told him that so often we think that God only wants our money but, instead, God really wants us to give freely of our time, our abilities and then our money. That we would do well to think about what Christ has done for us and to give accordingly.
You see, once the Holy Spirit, brings us to faith in Christ, we find that we are justified or made right with God the Father by Christ’s death and resurrection. With this faith in our hearts, He sanctifies us, or causes us to do holy things; that is, we begin to do good works for Him. Not because we are trying to pay Him back for what Christ has done for us, but because of our love for Christ, we want to freely give back to Him in love!
It is here that we begin to desire to freely and cheerfully give to Christ so that others might truly know this Jesus and His real love for them, and that it can be theirs as well. Christ died on the cross for all sin, and rose from the dead on the third day just for them. Nothing more and nothing less. We don’t give of our time, talents or our monies because we have an obligation. Rather, we freely give because of our love for Christ. If we give to Christ for any other reason, then we are giving for the wrong reason!
Pastor Todd at Christ Lutheran Church, 5225 Hadley Rd., Goodrich, Mi 48438 or at pchrist@centurytel.net 810-797-4602.