Tuesday, June 17, 2008

True Generosity

2 Corinthians 9:7 says that, "God loves a cheerful giver." When we give cheerfully, we not only give freely and joyously, but we also give freely and generously, we also give without seeking recognition from men. We are not concerned about what men think; we are only concerned about what God thinks.

Matt 6:3-4, But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving might be in secret. And your Father who sees you in secret will reward you.

When people recognize evidences of God's grace in us, and when we are encouraged about our growth in Christ, it can be helpful to us and exhort us to continue in good works. We get tripped up when we are giving only for the sake of being praised by men. Giving to be praised is not true generosity, giving in secret so that God will reward you is. The reward God gives is far better than any praise man can give, so it is totally worth it to give and do good works in secret. Then we can look forward to that glorious, "Well Done, my good and faithful servant."

10 comments:

Kade said...

I had a question for you Cj. What does it mean that you should not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing? I know it's tricky, but I want to know your thoughts.

-Kole

cj said...

I think it means that God does not want us telling our neighbor about all the great things we are doing. Proverbs 27:2 says, "Let another man praise you, and not your own mouth."
So if we make it our goal to tell others what we are doing then God is not pleased. He is pleased when we try to keep what we are doing in secret but someone notices us and praises us.

Meshaay said...

Yeah and when we give anything with the intent of being recognized, we've lost our heavenly reward for it, since we've gained the reward of men (throughout Matthew 6) praising us for what we've done.
Do you think this applies when Christian singers or actors go out for all the different awards? I do. I want to know if anyone else does.

Margaret Braun said...

Amen. I think often we stop ourselves from doing what we should because nobody's watching. But that's when we receive our reward from God which is surely a greater reward than any man's praise.

Maria said...

It's all about attitude. Thanks for the reminder CJ.

RYC: it's very flat on the Minnesota prairie, which is one reason why I love mountains so much.

Alyssa said...

Thanks for that great reminder, CJ. :)

Penn Tomassetti said...

Thanks for this message, CJ. It convicted me deeply. I needed to hear it, because seeking the praise of men applies to more areas than just giving. God bless you in your studies of the Scriptures.

Charlie said...

I think that some Christian artists maybe do try to look for their acceptance from men rather then from God.

-Charlie

(For more on this subject, visit my blog @ http://www.freewebs.com/charliesivils/blog.htm)

Sean John said...

A great point to remember... I often struggle with pride myself. This very much has to do with the need for humility. And as C.J. Mahaney puts it well in his book, humility is true greatness.

Thanks so much for the encouragement you are CJ! May God bless you to glorify Him to the most you can! And thank you for adding my meager blog to your blogroll... it is such a humbling act - in love for Christ. Thank God you are a fellow soldier for Christ! :)

keep fighting!

Anonymous said...

I too love Humility: True Greatness by C.J. Mahaney. It is a good read... although very convicting. (which is a good thing!)

This is a great post, CJ.
Kaysie