Experience The Joy Of Giving

First, God gave out of love. Second, God gave of His best ... For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son....

I was sitting next to a little boy in an evangelistic dinner several years ago. When the speaker told about how God the Father was God, and how Jesus Christ the Son was also God, the boy sarcastically said to himself, "Yeah, right." The little boy couldn’t understand how two persons, Father and Son, could be the same God.

When we try to understand God using ourselves as the model, we will never understand God. We don’t try to understand water using ourselves as the model. We allow water to be water. We don’t say that water cannot be liquid, solid and vapor at certain temperatures just because we cannot be liquid, solid and vapor at those temperatures.

We need to allow God to be God, without using mankind as the benchmark. The Bible tells us that God is three Persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And God so loved the world that He gave Himself in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ. Whatever your understanding of God, you need to understand that God gave us His best.

Someone tells about a missionary in Africa who had poor health and depended on goat milk for his source of vitamin. One day, the tribal leader came to visit the missionary. After a few minutes, it was obvious that the tribal leader was interested in the goat.

The missionary decided to give the goat to the tribal leader as a gesture of kindness to build the trust needed to share the love of God. In return, the tribal leader gave the missionary his walking stick.

Without the goat milk, the missionary became weaker and weaker over the next couple of days. Using the walking stick he got from the tribal leader, he walked into the village to purchase some goat milk. When he offered to buy the goal milk, his money was not accepted.

Instead, he was told that he was entitled to anything in this village that he wanted. When the missionary asked why, the villagers explained that the walking stick he held was the scepter belonging to the tribal leader. Possessing that scepter entitled him to everything in the village.

Romans 8:31-32 tells us, "What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?" In other words, since God gave us His one and only Son, we can be confident that He will give us everything else that will bring true joy to our lives.

God’s example of giving His best is our model for how we are to give in order to experience joy. Many people give what they don’t want. They give the leftovers. They give what they are glad to depart with. No joy comes from such giving.

We are to give of our best in all that we give. When we give people our words, we give positive and truthful words that build up. When we give people our time, we give them our full attention. When we give people our service, we give them our best ability and attitude. In so doing, not only will you bring joy to others, but you will also bring joy to our own life.