What type of attitude should Christians cultivate when giving this Christmas season?
Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. – 2 Corinthians 9:7
“Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.” – Luke 12:32
As we enter the Christmas season and consider the lavish ways that people in America will seek to express their love for each other through material gifts, it is good to anchor our giving in the Scripture. My basic point here is that God loves a cheerful giver because God IS a cheerful giver! He loves what is consistent with His nature and His character. How do we know God IS a cheerful giver? Well, that is precisely what Jesus told us concerning His Father in Luke 12:32: “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.” The words “pleased to give” literally mean that it is God’s good pleasure to give us the Kingdom. Child of God, it makes God happy to save your soul! It makes God happy to cleanse you from all your sins! It brings Him delight to think about your reaction to the New Heavens and New Earth when you see it for the first time. Think of the delight a parent gets at wrapping the “special gift” (you know, the BIG one) for Christmas. How they ponder what the child will do when he/she sees it on Christmas morning. It is the delight of love, the joy of knowing what this will do in the heart of the loved child. So it is with God. He delights in pondering what it will be like for you to enter His eternal Kingdom, never to be troubled by sin again.
Let this concept forever remove any residual lies the devil has told you about God being the “cosmic kill-joy,” or some grim being who exists to squelch your fun. God delights in giving the Kingdom to you. It was His delight to work out His salvation plan before the foundation of the world, to choose you in Christ to be holy and blameless in His sight, to fashion a world in which the Redemptive Plan would unfold. It was God’s delight to make the saving promises to Abraham and through the prophets to us. And, amazingly, it was God’s good pleasure to give you His Only Begotten Son as you substitute under His wrath. “It is God’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.” Note also that the gift is the Kingdom. The gift of God is to cure you of rebellion against His rule, to take the stiffness out of your neck and give you a new heart to submit to His laws. This is what God delights to give you and me… the Kingdom! There could have been no higher gift, and it made Him joyful to give it. He is the eternally cheerful giver.
“Ask Him to give you one more gift: a similar disposition!”
What about you? Are you an imitator of your heavenly Father? Do you give cheerfully and generously the way He did? Does it bring you delight to give money to missions or to poverty relief? When you serve a family member in some way, do you do it cheerfully? The attitude with which we give is, in most cases, the gift itself. A grudging giver is an oxymoron, since he/she is no giver at all:
Do not eat the food of a stingy man, do not crave his delicacies; for he is the kind of man who is always thinking about the cost. “Eat and drink,” he says to you, but his heart is not with you. You will vomit up the little you have eaten and will have wasted your compliments (Prov. 23:6-8).
As you enter this Holiday season and have many opportunities to give, remember that cheerful giving flows from God’s very nature. God loves a cheerful giver because God IS a cheerful giver. Ask Him to give you one more gift: a similar disposition!
