The Gift of Giving

Do you have the gift of giving? We are currently in the deepest recession I have experienced in my adult life. I honestly believe it was overdue, what with our profligate consumer spending and folks using their homes as piggy banks. During the Roaring Twenties the stock market was rising in a head spinning way, people were borrowing money and wagering the borrowed funds on the ever rising market. Reminds me of the real estate rise and the “find and flip” phenomena. After the roaring twenties we entered the Great Depression. It is well documented in many books including Tom Brokaw’s “The Greatest Generation” that when times got tough, people gave out of their lack. Families fed their neighbors when they didn’t have enough for themselves. Children found homes with families whose houses seemingly could not contain one more soul. I believe we are starting to see that happen again as reality sinks in. So how should we give? Does it mean that if you have some money in your pocket and someone asks you for it you fork it over with a self congratulatory grin? Romans 12 6-10 talks about different gifts including the gift of giving. I believe there are three principles that define the gift of giving:

1.That you have something to give.
2.That you have wisdom concerning what to give.
3.That you have discernment as to who or what to give to.

Just because you have the resources does it mean that you should give it “liberally” to anyone that asks? I don’t believe so. Several years ago a friend of mine (Bill) was angry with our mutual friend (Harry). Bill couldn’t believe that Harry refused to give him money when he asked him. Now Bill had a history of poor investments. Even though he had the education, background and intelligence things just never seemed to work out for him in business. He was in the midst of another failing project and needed a bail out (something we are all familiar with now). There was no question that Harry had the resources to bail him out, but he also had wisdom and discernment and knew that by giving the money he would circumvent the lesson that my friend needed to learn. He ended up getting the money from someone else and the project failed anyways. I believe that if you don’t learn the principles of giving that God will not give you the resources to give. Because if you don’t have wisdom and discernment you will enable your family and friends in their folly. I knew a man that was going through drug addiction treatment. His counselor told him that if another person would have loved him they would have killed him. What he meant by this was every time he needed a fix he would plead with family members with some story about being kicked out of his home, or buying shoes for the kids. They would give him the money and he would buy drugs. We all should give out of what God has given us, but ask God that you would have wisdom and discernment so that you would be doing His will in your giving.