GOD’Sheart
One of the greatest challenges which we face in our quest to enjoy our best lives is the temptation to live selfishly. We believe God wants the best for us, that we have the favour of God, and that He has much more in store. Because of this it is easy to slip into the subtle trap of selfishness. Not only will we avoid that pitfall, but we will have more joy than we dream possible when we live to give.
Our society always teaches us to look out for number one. What is in it for me? I will help you, but what will I get in return? We readily acknowledge this is the “me” generation. Many people are blatantly and unashamedly living for themselves. They are not interested in other people. They do not have time to help other people in need. They focus only on what they want, what they need, what they feel will most benefit themselves. We have too many such people in our community. Their sole desire is to grasp as much wealth as possible and then deposit it in foreign countries. Such selfish attitude which condemns them is living shallow, unrewarding lives. No matter how much they acquire for themselves, they are never satisfied.
If we want to experience a new level of God’s joy, if we want Him to pour out His blessings and find favour in our life, then we are going to have to get our mind off ourselves. We must learn to be a giver and not a taker. We learn to quit trying to figure out what everybody can do for us, and start trying to figure out what we can do for somebody. We are not made to function as self-involved people, thinking only for ourselves. No. God created us to be givers. We will never be truly fulfilled as a human being until we learn the simple secret of how to give our lives away.
Nine times out of ten we are thinking about our problems. We are thinking about some concerns or frustration in our lives. We are thinking about what we must do tomorrow. When we get all caught up in us, it is a formula for depression and discouragement. We must learn to get our focus off ourselves. The late singer Keith Green said it well: “It is so hard to see when my eyes are on me.”
Created to give
It is extremely selfish to go around always dwelling on our problems, always thinking about what we want or need, and hardly noticing the many needs of other people around us. One of the best things we can do if we are having a problem is to help solve somebody else’s problem. If we want our dreams to come to pass, help someone else fulfil his or her dream. Start sowing some seeds so that God can bring us a harvest. When we meet other people’s needs, God always meets our needs.
There was a man who was extremely disgruntled with life, disappointed with God and himself. He had been highly successful at one time, but through a series of poor choices, he lost his business, his family, his home, and his entire life savings. Now, he was basically living out of his car.
He was deeply depressed. A pastor attempted to cheer him up and encourage him. After praying with him, the pastor gave him some practical advice. “Listen, Sir, you have got to get your mind off your problems.” The pastor further said: “Get your mind off the mistakes you have made and all the things you have lost. If you really want to be happy, if you really want to be restored, you have got to change your focus and go out and help somebody else in need. You have got to sow some seeds. No matter how big your problems are, somebody out there has a bigger problem, a tougher road a more heart-rending story than yours. You can help make a difference in somebody’s life. You can ease somebody’s burden. You can cheer somebody up, and give somebody a fresh new hope.”
The man promised he would take the pastor’s advice. He connected with some men who had helped people overcome addictions. Instead of moping in his car, thinking about what a failure he was, he began spending time caring for those drug addicts. He became a friend to many of the addicts, listening to their struggles, encouraging them, praying for them, and challenging them to believe for a better life. He became a giver.
We are created to give, not simply to please ourselves. If we miss this truth we will miss the abundant, overflowing, joy-filled life that God has in store for us. When we reach out to other people in need, God will make sure that our own needs are supplied. If you are lonely today, do not sit around feeling sorry for yourself. Go and help someone else who is lonely. If you are down and discouraged, do not focus on your own need, get your mind off yourself and go help meet someone else’s need. Go to visit the nursing home, call a friend and encourage that person. If we are struggling financially, go and help somebody who has less than we have. We need to sow some seeds so God can bring us a harvest.
We may say we don’t have anything to give. Sure we do. We can give a smile; we can give a hug; we can bake somebody a cake; we can visit someone in the hospital; we can write somebody an encouraging message. Somebody needs what we have to share; somebody needs our smile; somebody needs our love; somebody needs our friendship; somebody needs our encouragement. God did not make us to function as “Lone Rangers”. He created us to be free, but he did not intend for us to be independent of each other. We really do need one another. We are to be the body. “The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts, and though all its parts are many, they form one body.” (1Cor 12: 12-31)
Give a smile
Somebody needs our hugs today. Somebody needs our love. Somebody needs to feel our touch. We may not realize it, but there is healing in our hands. There is healing in our voice. God wants to use us to bring hope, healing, love, and victory to people wherever we go.
How long does it take to give somebody a compliment? How long does it take to tell your wife “I love you. You are great. I am glad you are mine.” How long does it take to tell your employee: “You are doing a fine job. I appreciate your hard work.” It is not enough to think kind compliments; we need to express them. As the old saying goes, “Love is not love until you give it away.” We should get up each morning with an attitude that says, “I am going to make somebody happy today. I am going to help meet somebody’s need.” Do not go through life as a taker, instead we need to become a giver.
The Old Testament teaches “When you feed the hungry, when you clothe the naked, when you encourage the oppressed, then your life is going to break forth like the dawn, and then our healing is going to quietly come.” In other words, when we reach out to heal people, that is when God is going to make sure our needs are supplied. When we focus on being a blessing to others, God makes sure that we are always blessed in abundance.
Once a cancer patient instead of sinking into a deep pit of depression, she chose not to focus on herself; she chose not to constantly dwell on her sickness. In her time of greatest ordeal, in the darkest hour of her life, she went to church and prayed for other people who were sick or in need. She sowed those seeds of healing. And just as the Scripture says, as she began to bless others, her light broke forth like the dawn and her own healing came.
We should concentrate more on being a blessing than trying to be blessed. We need to look for opportunities to share God’s love, His gifts, and His goodness with other people. The truth is, the more we help other people, the more God will make sure that we are helped. Let us get practical if we have things lying around our house that we are never going to use again, why not give those things away to someone who would use them? If it is not meeting a need, turn it into a seed.
Let us thus develop a lifestyle of giving: living to give instead of living to get. Have an attitude that says, who can I bless today? Rather than how can get blessed today?
Open our hands, don’t hold on so tightly. God will not fill a closed fist with good things. We don’t have to look far before we find someone we can help. We have an opportunity to live unselfishly, displaying the character of God. God is a giver, and we are never more like God than when we give.
God promised Abraham “I will bless you and make your name famous and distinguished, and you will be a blessing.” But, let us notice, there is a catch. We must do something; better yet, we must be something. God is implying we will be blessed so that we can be a blessing to other people. Unless we are willing to be a blessing, God will not pour out His favour and goodness in our lives. We will receive from God in the same measure we give to other people. If we give more, God will also bless more. But we may say we don’t have anything to give, it all depends on our attitude. We must be faithful in the little we have right now before God will bless us with more. Whatever we give will be given back to us.
Giving is a spiritual principle. Whatever we give will be given back to us. If we give a smile, we will receive smiles from other people. If we are generous to people in their time of need, God will make sure that other people are generous to us in our time of need. What we make happen for others, God will make happen for us.
We need to learn to give. A young man in Saudi Arabia was extremely wealthy and lived in an ornate palace almost too grand to describe. The man was rich beyond anything our mind could fathom. But, what intrigued me about him was the interesting way in which he used part of his wealth. Every couple of months or so, he would bring in hundreds of poor people from his country. He met with them individually and discussed their needs. Then, in most cases, he would give the people whatever they needed. If they needed a car, he would buy them a car. If they needed a home, he would buy them a house. If they needed money for an operation, he provided that as well. Whatever the need was, he would meet it. He gave away hundreds of thousands of dollars and literally millions more in property and materials. Is there any wonder why his business continues to flourish?
I doubt the Saudi man practices the Christian faith, and we may not have a lot of extra money to give, but we can buy somebody a dinner every once in a while. We can give somebody a kind word. We can pray for someone in need.
Now is the time for us to develop an attitude of giving. The closest thing to the heart of our God is helping hurting people. God loves when we sing and when we pray. He loves when we come together to celebrate His goodness. But nothing pleases God more than when we take care of one of His children. Jesus said: “Inasmuch, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.”
Somebody needs what we have to give. It may not be our money; it may be our time. It may be our listening ears. It may be our arms to encourage. It may be our smile to uplift. It may be a rescuing hug.
John Bunyan, author of the classic book, “the Pilgrim’s Progress”, said:
“you have not lived today until you have done something for someone who cannot pay you back.”
Make a decision that you will live to give. Be on the look-out each day for somebody we can bless. Do not live for ourselves only; learn to give ourselves, and our life will make a difference.