“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” ~ Winston Churchill
Our God is a generous God. He pours out blessings on His children according to His grace. Ephesians tells us that His eternal riches are our inheritance through Jesus Christ. God’s generosity toward us is amazing! When we are generous to others, we reflect the very character and nature of God. He actually gives us abundance so we can experience the joy of giving. As Christian leaders, we must approach life with an abundance mindset and not one of scarcity. God’s ability to provide us with everything we need is limitless.
Too often people think of giving in terms of having to lose something in order to benefit someone else. But the truth is: “It’s more blessed to give than to receive.” By giving we gain. Our perspective, priorities, values, humility, dependence, and so much more can be positively affected when we give generously of our time, talent and treasure. Giving is an act of worship. I love this Old Testament passage where Moses had to actually command the people to stop giving because they had given so much.
They went to Moses and reported, “The people have given more than enough materials to complete the job the LORD has commanded us to do!” So Moses gave the command, and this message was sent throughout the camp: “Men and women, don’t prepare any more gifts for the sanctuary. We have enough!” (Exodus 36:5-6 NLT)
Even when the project had more than enough, the people wanted to keep giving. Why? It was because everyone was giving as an act of worship and out of their gratitude to God. They gave from thankful hearts filled with a sense of abundance because of all the ways He had blessed them.
It is so easy to focus on what we don’t have instead of being grateful for what we do have. It’s not even a matter of whether or not you see your cup as “half empty or half full”. It’s more about being thankful that you have something in your cup and seeing that as a blessing. Gratitude fuels generosity. The more grateful you are, the more generous you will be. Thankful people give freely.
As leaders, it’s very easy to become overwhelmed with the daily problems we have to solve. If we’re not careful, we can turn cynical in our perspective and as a result, see only the negative and miss the positive things in our day. God is good. That doesn’t change just because you are having a bad day.
Out of God’s goodness He is generous to us. Prove it to yourself today by counting your blessings. Actually write them down and review your list at the end of the day. Share the list with your team today. When you really think about how truly blessed you are, you will naturally want to bless others.