Psalm 112:9

Psalm 112:9

B.

“He has distributed freely; He has given to the poor; His righteousness endures forever; His horn is exalted in honor.”

Giving is at the heart of the Christian soul.  It is the very thing that God has done for us.  ‘He who did not spare His own Son, but freely gave Him for us all, how will He not also freely give us all things.’  We are derivative beings who have a three-fold existence: physical, mental, and spiritual.  We are dependent upon certain conditions and resources to sustain our existence according to the way we are designed.  These are what we call ‘needs’.  They are what we must have if we are to benefit from what is called, ‘life’.  The trouble is, by taking control of our own lives, we undertook God’s responsibility to fill our needs for ourselves—a task we are existentially inadequate to do—and because of this inadequacy, we spend our lives taking from each other, and yet never seem to have enough to satisfy, thus, making us slaves to selfishness.  We rob each other of the dignity life was meant to have, and more importantly, we rob God of the praises due to Him as our Father when we compel Him to be our judge. 

To battle this inclination is to surrender our lives to God’s provision—for better or for worse.  We must learn, in all things, to full and to be hungry, to abound and to suffer need.  The notion of surrender to God is not to conform to His ‘rules’, but to allow Him to dictate how our needs are to be filled—physically, mentally, and spiritually—which begins first with Christ, the greatest gift of all, and flows through Him as we trust God to do for us all the things that we cannot do for ourselves.  Pride is the determination to fill in ourselves with what only God can give, and because we seek to take what was meant for God to give, our only means to accomplish this is to take these things from others.  We have no ability to create resources for ourselves, but only to hoard them so that we might protect ourselves—even when we do so for the sake of those we love—it is still a form of robbery.  If we are determined to depend upon our own ability to provide for ourselves, we are participating in robbery, no matter if it is only on our own account or for our own ‘herd’. 

            Though generosity is an expression of a giving heart according to physical means, a giving heart is only one that is surrendered to God—the giver of all things—and when we surrender to the manner that He has designed us to be filled, we never again have any lack.  Therefore, as we begin to trust God as giver and sustainer, we become freer with our own resources—physically, mentally, and spiritually—to give to others freely as God gives freely to us.  This is what it means to be a cheerful giver.  It means to give ‘with great amusement’, knowing the privilege of living according to the One who gives all sufficiency to us is our joy, and that what we give will be given to us—sparingly if our faith is sparing, and bountifully if our faith is bountiful.  In any case, it is only by faith that we may truly give, since it is only by faith that we live according to the One who gives all things, and through Christ, invalidates the need for us to protect ourselves.

            We must become a giving body.  Charity, in this way, is a vital ingredient in what provides for our freedom.  To believe that the provision and resource of one’s own life is the work of one’s own hand makes that one a slave to his own existence.  There are people in need everywhere, and the physical and moral poverty of men increases when the interest of the church to serve them decreases.   But, if Christ is to increase, then we must decrease, and so, our concern for our own well being.  For, all virtue comes from a giving heart since virtue is defined by the sacrifice of one’s self for others.  This is why Jesus says, “It is better to give than to receive.”  A sinful heart is bent on taking because it lacks the certainty of each moment.  A righteous heart is content to give—desiring to do so with much amusement—because he knows that God is the certainty of every moment, and to make Him known as the One who gives, we must relinquish all attachment and rights to our time, wealth, and ability for His service.