The Gift of God

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Last Sunday I was asked to pray over the offering in my church. My church custom is that if you have an offering to come forward and deposit it in a basket in the front of the sanctuary, but this is not what I want to talk about. My focus here is that the act of bringing our gifts and tithes is a mere mimicking of what God does to us. Giving is God’s nature. The Apostle John says that God so loved the world that He gave his son (John 3:16).

One could dispute, and many do, that our gifts cannot compare to the gift of God? They are right it does not. Nevertheless, even though God does not need our gifts the Bible states that that “God loves a cheerful giver” (II Cor. 9:7). People that give are happy people. I have a friend that told me that he had a dream that lots of money came out of his pockets as he gave it out. He is a generous giver.

Generosity is a gift that needs to be pursued and practiced; it is unconditional and frees us from the love of things, may it be money or something else. The bottom line is, one cannot out give God, but you will not find in the Bible anyone rebuked for trying. Let’s mimic God in our giving for the gift of God is eternal life.

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