Give, give, give...

"Give abundantly. Feel that you are rich. Have no mean thought in your heart.
Of Love, of thought, of all you have, give, give, give.
You are followers of the World's Greatest Giver. Give of time, of personal ease and comfort, of rest, of fame, of healing, of power, of sympathy, of all these and many more.
Learn this lesson, and you will become a great power to help others and to do mighty things."
God Calling, p. 142

My wonderful, hard-working husband has not had any work for the past couple of weeks (he is a self-employed carpenter). Honestly, this is not a big deal. He has these short periods of time where he can't find work every now and then, and we usually just forgo any extras and tighten our belts just a bit. Sounds reasonable, doesn't it?

Reasonable? Yes. The way of the Kingdom? Hmmm...not so much. You see, during these times of tightening we often tighten up our giving, as well. Of course, we still tithe and continue to give to the things that we have committed to on a monthly basis (child sponsorship, Bible's Unbound, etc.). But, we are not real open to giving beyond that (a certain word comes to mind here...yes it's stingy!) Yikes! How does that reflect the Kingdom of God? Well, it doesn't. When I act like I don't have enough, Satan has won. He wants to convince me that we should be worried about our financial situation, or that we need to hoarde what we do have...just in case we need it for some emergency in the future.

But, you know what? I am the daughter of the KING. He gives generously. He gives joyfully. And He asks me to do the same. He also gives me the means to do it!! Isn't that incredible?! He asks me to give, but He also gives me everything that I need in order to obey Him. I can give generously. I can give joyfully. And of course, I'm not just talking about money here. He gives us all things so that we can give all things away for the good of His Kingdom. What an incredible God we have!!!