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What Gives?

  • November 30, 2022
  • Posted by: Carolyn Mahal
  • Category: Devotions
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Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. – 2 Corinthians 9: 7-8

November 29, 2022, is the tenth anniversary of “Giving Tuesday.” It’s a day set aside in the middle of the early holiday season for people to consider groups and organizations that are deserving of a financial gift. The marketing and development teams of non-profit organizations encourage people to remember just how thankful they were last Thursday and combine that goodwill with a reminder to make an end-of-year charitable donation for tax purposes. And it works! A quick Google search shows that in 2021, $2.7 billion dollars were raised by organizations in the US. Of course, my warped mind leads me to wonder how much more money could be raised if Giving Tuesday didn’t have to come after…

  • Thanksgiving
  • Black Friday
  • Small Business Saturday, and
  • Cyber Monday

All kidding aside, days like Giving Tuesday help to raise awareness of groups that are doing important work to help other people in need. Many of these groups, including the ministries for which I have served, would be unable to do what they do without the generous support of their donors.

Simply put, they need help to do what they would otherwise be unable to do.

Sounds a lot like the relationship we have with God.

No. I am not saying we owe God money. All the money in all the world is already His anyway. I am also not saying that we can buy grace, forgiveness, salvation, a longer life, or a better house in a better neighborhood in Heaven. If fact, it’s quite the opposite. The comparison is this – Without the gift provided to us by God: the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we would be lost in our sin, unable to achieve salvation and earn a place in Heaven.

Additionally, it is interesting to note that once again, God demonstrates for us how He wants us to live through the giving of this great gift. At the time of mankind’s fall, God decided in His heart to provide us a path to salvation. His decision was neither reluctant nor under compulsion. So, as we choose to share the abundance with which He has blessed us, we should do so using the same methodology that He used when it came to our salvation: cheerfully and with a design to grow the kingdom of the Lord here on His earth.

May God open our hearts to see the incredible love He has for us. May we recognize that we, as sinners who have been redeemed and restored, have a calling to bring that same good news to others in whatever ways God has provided to us. Finally, may we live our lives exuding the joy that can only come from our Creator, our Redeemer and our Sanctifier every day of our lives, and not just on a random Tuesday late in the fall.

 

Devotion by Richard Schumacher

Senior Director of Operations