Originally published December 2019
There are certain undeniable combinations in life. Peanut butter and jelly, chocolate and peanut butter, milk and cookies all in my opinion are better together than separate. There is combination that has a unique impact on us and others. I found the combination of gratitude and generosity is powerful.
Gratitude drives giving. These two qualities are indelibly linked together. The power of a grateful heart is to know that what I have been given I could have not otherwise received. Scripture says, “Remember the LORD your God. He is the one who gives you power to be successful, Deuteronomy 8:18 No matter my level of intelligence and ability I have been blessed by God with all I have. Gratitude is a powerful motivator that Jesus looked for in the lives of His disciples. The man who acknowledges he is an undeserving recipient of God’s grace will cultivate generosity in everything he does.
Giving is distinctly different from the experience of receiving. Giving is more active and intentional while receiving is passive. Giving may require more of your heart soul and mind. The Apostle Paul speaking of the generosity from the Ephesian church said, “In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ” Acts 20:35 That blessing could be immediate and internal, but it could also be delayed and eternal. While giving can be motivated by gratitude, receiving should produce gratitude. When it does God will use it but an ungrateful recipient is useless in God’s hands. God is a giver and Jesus coming to earth to die reveals that giving must always cost us something.
Be thankful for imperfect gifts. I loved when my girls were small and they would give me their homemade birthday cards and gifts. Even though they were made of paper, glue and shells they were perfect to me because of the giver. The truth is that everything I receive in this life outside of Jesus is imperfect. That imperfection was never meant to ultimately satisfy my soul. Whenever I bought my girls a McDonald’s “happy meal” I was eventually reminded that the happy always wears off. God doesn’t want me to experience ultimate satisfaction in anything but Him. At the same time, we can be grateful for all these imperfect gifts because they remind us of the perfection that is to come in Jesus.
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. James 1:17