To hear this Morning Devotion, please click Giving perfectly
.
.
It is a temptation that we all experience from time to time.
We give something valuable to a person as a sign of our appreciation for them, but the gift is seemingly taken for granted or perhaps barely acknowledged. Our human nature starts flexing its “I’m wounded/offended” muscles and, the next thing you know, we start wishing we could take the gift back.
Why? Because WE didn’t get the response from the recipient that we were anticipating.
Whether we ever get the gift back or not doesn’t matter at that point. We’ve already demonstrated to ourselves, to God and perhaps subtly even to the recipient that the gift really wasn’t a gift at all.
It was an advance payment on a deal that was supposed to bring us something we wanted.
And since we didn’t get what we wanted — whether affection or increased workplace status or an inside track with the in-laws or whatever — we regret giving somebody what we thought they wanted.
Our imperfect-motives deal went sour.
This sort of thing happens SO many times in dating and family relationships. It’s common in the workplace, too.
The fact is that the world’s gifts often come with hidden agendas.
Should we expect anything less from a world that doesn’t live to please the Lord?
The question for us this morning is are we living to please the Lord?
One way of demonstrating a desire to please the Lord is to give as He gave.
You see, Jesus gave you and me the greatest gift He could ever give — His life — because He knew that we could never find salvation without it.
He didn’t say that He’d go to the cross once all the people of the world finally proclaimed Him as the atoning Messiah.
Instead, He gave His life in advance because mankind had no hope of salvation without His sacrificial death.
Jesus gave His life because people needed Him to, not because they deserved it and not because He got some compensation out of the deal.
It was a flat-out gift based on merciful love, not some spiritual bartering deal.
I share this message today because of what I read this morning in John 14:27.
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”
When I read that Jesus doesn’t give as the world gives, my heart was deeply stirred.
For I knew that we humans are imperfect in giving on our good days and outright carnal on our bad days.
It’s true that we sometimes give with pure motives, but it’s not very often.
We too often hope that our gift will increase our relationship status or physical pleasure or sense of financial security via access to a new job or sales lead.
And not often enough are our gifts offered simply because of the need another person has, with no regard for ourselves.
When Jesus offered the gift of peace to His disciples, it was not a boomerang of blessing designed to boost His status or wealth or sense of security or land Him a job.
It was, very simply, given because the disciples needed it and He could give it.
They could choose later to abandon the gift by walking away from faith, but the gift would never be yanked from them by the One who gave it.
Please, my friend, be one who gives to others as Jesus gave.
Give because of the need another has, not because of a want you have for significance, or praise, or affection, or job security or whatever.
Pray for wisdom and humility to offer gifts in the name of Christ, not deals.
As always, I love you
Martin
