The Life Style of Giving | God is My Source!

If you feel that your life lacks purpose or meaning, that there is something that God wants you to do but you do not know what that is then maybe you should try to develop a life style of giving. Now the idea of giving to people may not sound exciting. This idea may make you hold on more tightly to your money and possessions. But wait; there is another way to look at the practice of giving that you may have never thought of before.

First of all, giving starts with God. He initiates it. Giving is a part of God’s nature. For example:

John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.”

Romans 5:8 – “But God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

God loves us and He demonstrates his love by giving.

Secondly, God wants us to follow this practice:

Ephesians 5:1-2 – “Be therefore imitators of God, as beloved children. Walk in love, even as Christ also loved you, and gave himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling fragrance.”

OK, God wants us to love others and to give of ourselves as Christ did. But now comes the exciting part. That is an important principle that governs our world. It is the principle of sowing and reaping. We understand how this works. A person plants a seed. After some time passes that seed brings forth a harvest. One time while Jesus was teaching his disciple He told them the parable of the sower:

He said to them, “Don’t you understand this parable? How will you understand all of the parables? The farmer sows the word. These are the ones by the road, where the word is sown; and when they have heard, immediately Satan comes, and takes away the word which has been sown in them. These in like manner are those who are sown on the rocky places, who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with joy. They have no root in themselves, but are short-lived. When oppression or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they stumble. Others are those who are sown among the thorns. These are those who have heard the word, and the cares of this age, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. These are those which were sown on the good ground: such as hear the word, and accept it, and bear fruit, some thirty times, some sixty times, and some one hundred times.” Mark 4: 13-20

Here, Jesus emphasized the importance of sowing and reaping as an essential aspect of how God works. In this case, the word of God is sown. Later a harvest is reaped of some thirty, sixty or even a hundred fold. And Jesus told another parable about sowing and reaping:

He said, “The Kingdom of God is as if a man should cast seed on the earth, and should sleep and rise night and day, and the seed should spring up and grow, he doesn’t know how. For the earth bears fruit: first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. But when the fruit is ripe, immediately he puts forth the sickle, because the harvest has come.” Mark 4:26-29

Here, Jesus tells us that once a seed is planted it grows by itself. We do not have to understand how this happens. We just have to be ready to reap a harvest when it is ready.

But, it gets more exciting. You see, some will understand sowing and reaping, but they will say they do not have anything to sow. However, God has that covered too! God has provides us the “seeds” to sow.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says Yahweh. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain comes down and the snow from the sky, and doesn’t return there, but waters the earth, and makes it bring forth and bud, and gives seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so shall my word be that goes forth out of my mouth: it shall not return to me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. Isaiah 55:8-11

Yes, God provides for our needs, even our need for seed to sow:

Philippians 4:19 – “My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus”

Deuteronomy 8:18- “But you shall remember Yahweh your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth; that he may establish his covenant which he swore to your fathers, as at this day.”

But now, I need to stop for a moment and dispel the notion that giving is only about money and possession. When we begin to think about developing a life style of giving to others we will come to see that there are many things besides money and possessions that we can give. For example, we can give of our time, we can give encouragement or guidance. I will speak more about this later. So let us understand that giving is not limited to the physical things we possess.

Now back to our main points:

Giving starts with God; God gave to us
God works by sowing a seed and later reaping a harvest
We can demonstrate God’s character, of love, by giving
We have more things to give then just money or possessions
God provides us with seed for giving

Here, we need to recognize that we often receive things from the Lord that we can use for seed that we can sow into the life of others. For instance, once when I visited a friend at his house I received a bag of fruit. So I had unexpectedly reaped a harvest. Recognizing this, I knew that I should take part of my harvest, the fruit, and give some of them away, this would be my seed.

This is another exciting thing about the life style of giving. We take some of what God has already given us and sow it as seed. Then later, we reap a harvest more than we had before and we take some of this new harvest and give that away as seed. And this process keeps repeating over and over. The result is that we are blessed by our giving and other people are blessed as they receive our gifts. And God is glorified as people’s needs are met. As it is recorded in Acts 20:35 – “It is more blessed to give than to receive”.

So we can summarize that giving is really passing on what we have receive from God. We are not meant to take all that we receive from the Lord and hold on to it. Jesus told us:

Don’t lay up treasures for yourselves on the earth, where moth and rust consume, and where thieves break through and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consume, and where thieves don’t break through and steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matthew 6:19-21

Neither does God want us to hide our talents under a rock. If we want to experience God at work in our lives we should not be slack in sowing into the lives of others. The Apostle Paul teaches us about this:

Remember this: he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. He who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Let each man give according as he has determined in his heart; not grudgingly, or under compulsion; for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, that you, always having all sufficiency in everything, may abound to every good work. As it is written, “He has scattered abroad, he has given to the poor. His righteousness remains forever.” Now may he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food, supply and multiply your seed for sowing, and increase the fruits of your righteousness; you being enriched in everything to all liberality, which works through us thanksgiving to God. For this service of giving that you perform not only makes up for lack among the saints, but abounds also through many givings of thanks to God. 2 Corinthians 9:6-12

Yes, when we live a life of giving, God will make us rich in many ways. In turn we will be able to bless others. But we must never forget that what compels us to give is Christian love:

1 Corinthians 13:3 – “If I dole out all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but don’t have love, it profits me nothing.”

If we do not give for the right reasons, our giving is worthless. And we do not give out of envy or selfish ambition in order to get the attention of the world:

Matthew 6:3,4 – “But when you do merciful deeds, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand does, so that your merciful deeds may be in secret, then your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.”

Now, we understand the importants of giving or sowing. Who can we sow to?

We can sow into the lives others. Jesus said in: Luke 6:38 – “Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will be given to you. For with the same measure you measure it will be measured back to you.” He told us to give. Notice here he did not specify what to give. Nor did he say how much to give.

There are many things you can give or sow:

Words of encouragement
Complements
A listening ear
Our interest and attention
Forbearance, mercy or forgiveness
A smile
A prayer
A cup of cold water
Food items
Hospitality
Time
Money
Wisdom, advice, guidance
Appreciation
God’s word, the gospel
A hand shake
A hug
A kiss
Material things
Help/service
Healing
Courtesy

There is no limit for those who desire to develop a live style of giving. You can leave your house in to morning and be able to give something to every person you encounter during the day. If you do this, then get ready to receive a harvest. You do not know where or when it will come, but you will receive.

Proverbs 21:21 – “He who follows after righteousness and kindness Finds life, righteousness, and honor.”

We can sow to God:

Galatians 6:7,8 – “Don’t be deceived. God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that will he also reap. For he who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption. But he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.”

We sow to the Spirit when we spend time with the Lord; when we worship and praise him.

And we can sow to ourselves. But we have a choice here If we sow to our sinful nature, that is, do those things that are pleasing to flesh: Paul list the deeds of the flesh in Galatians 5:19-21: “Now the works of the flesh are obvious, which are: adultery, sexual immorality, uncleanness, lustfulness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, strife, jealousies, outbursts of anger, rivalries, divisions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.” Or we can sow to our spiritual nature though prayer, Bible study, meditation and worship.

When should we sow? Anytime is a good time, even when we are experiencing sorrow:

Psalm 126:5-6 – “Those who sow in tears will reap in joy. 6 He who goes out weeping, carrying seed for sowing, Will assuredly come again with joy, carrying his sheaves.”

So I close by asking, are you making use of the seeds that God has given you? Remember the words of Jesus:

He who is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much. He who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. 11 If therefore you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? 12 If you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? Luke 16:10-12

I challenge you to be faithful with your seed and to develop a life style of giving. You will find that it is exciting to give. God is the provider of your seed and he will direct you in how to sow it.

And remember the words of The Apostle Paul:

Let us not be weary in doing good, for we will reap in due season, if we don’t give up. Galatians 6:9