DAILY DEVOTIONAL – August 28, 2019

“Receive Joy” 

Prayer:  Our most generous God, You spared no expense in sacrificing Your precious Son Jesus so that we, who have deserved nothing but Your wrath and judgement, might receive the priceless gift of eternal salvation by Your grace through faith in Jesus.  Lord, give us generous hearts and help us to worship and praise You by loving others by living and giving of ourselves generously.  Amen.

Hebrews 13:2

Do not neglect to show hospitality and be generous to strangers, for some that have done this have entertained angels without realizing it.

Devotion – “Receive Joy!”

I am sure we are all familiar with the saying that, “It is better to give than to receive.”  And it is, isn’t it?  If we are honest with ourselves and each other, we would admit, however, that this isn’t our instinct or natural way of thinking.  If we naturally found more pleasure in giving than receiving, there would have been no need for this popular saying to have been used in the first place, right?  But we do need to be reminded that it is better to give than to receive.  It’s better to give not because giving more makes us better than other people, or because giving more means we will get more in the end.  Generosity is not some act of karma that we can leverage to try and ultimately get what we want.  But, still in our sinful nature, we tend to recall all the times we were generous to others when we don’t feel that we are getting what we deserve.

Every human heart longs for true joy.  It is better to give than to receive because true joy is found not in the accumulation of material things, but in the privilege of sacrificially giving to others so their needs are met, or even just to bless them.  It’s the way we were created.  Generosity is in us as we were created in the image of our most Generous God.  God is completely self-sufficient.  He has no need of anything or anyone outside of Himself.  God is God.  God is a gracious and loving God by nature as well.  So to express that generosity and love, He created man and woman to love perfectly and generously provide for with all the splendor of the earth and universe He created for them and left them to subdue and enjoy.  Even after Adam and Eve, and you and I, took God’s generosity for granted and sinned and rebelled against God, our loving Creator did not pull back His amazing love and generosity to us.  Instead, after the fall of mankind, God promised He would give even more; that He would give Himself.  That He would give His One and Only Son Jesus who would be born of woman and give to sinful mankind the priceless gift of His blood shed on the cross to pay for the sins of the world.  This is the eternally gracious God who made us, the generous God and Lord Jesus who has saved us through His death and resurrection.

Our generous Lord has called us to live and give generously of ourselves and all that we have because we have already been given eternity in Christ and all the riches of heaven itself.  Our God who has already given us everything in His Son Jesus has promised to take care of all of our needs and even some of our desires, calls us to also be generous to all people, even to our enemies, and to bless others with all of the blessings God has lavished upon us in Christ.

There was a young lady was waiting for her flight in the boarding room of a big airport.  As she knew she was in for a long delay and wait, she bought herself a book to read and bought some cookies as well.  She got situated and comfortable, sitting in the VIP room of the airline’s terminal.  She sat, opened her cookies and began to read her book.

Not too long after, another man came and sat down two chairs next to her – a packet of cookies in between them.  As the they both relaxed to read, the lady paused to grab one of her cookies that lay in the seat between them.  As soon as she went back to reading her book, she noticed out of the corner of her eye that the man next to her also grabbed one of her cookies.

“What nerve!”  She thought to herself.  “If I was in the mood, I would let him have it!”

This went on the while they waited.  For every cookie she took, the man took one also.  She was infuriated but decided not to make a scene, though she was tempted.  As the time drew more near for the flight, there was one cookie left. “I wonder what this jerk is going to do now?” she thought.  Sure enough, the man went for the cookie.  He picked it up, broke it in half and put the other half down for her.   “That’s it!”  She said to herself.  “If I don’t leave now, I’ll punch him in the nose!”

So, she grabbed her stuff and stormed off to board the plane.  As she sat in her 1st class seat, finally able to relax, she reclined, brought her book back out and reached for her purse to get her reading glasses.  As she reached in, she felt a plastic bag.  Looking down she was surprised to see the bag of cookies she had bought laying in her purse – untouched and unopened.  She had forgotten she put them there when she bought them.  Ashamed, she scrambled to see if she could find the man, if he was on her plane so she could apologize for her obvious attitude.  But the man was not on her flight.

You know friends, there are things in life we cannot take back.

The stone after the throw.

The word after it’s said.

The occasion once it’s over.

The time when life is over.

This is why it is better to give than to receive and why our Lord calls us to live generously; so that we never have to worry about trying to take something back.

One gift that all of us have been given and that we never have to worry about taking back is the gift of Jesus and the Good News of God’s amazing generosity in the salvation purchased for us in Christ.  Yes, God calls us to be generous with the earthly and material blessings He has generously given us, but more important to God than giving of material gifts is the giving of the eternal gift of salvation by grace through faith in Christ.  That is the most precious gift you and I have and the gift that God has called us to be generous with.  Everyone is poor in spirit.  Every person is sinful and should mourn their sin.  Everyone needs Jesus.  It is better to give than to receive my friends, so I encourage you to find that joy and satisfaction Christ offers us and give the gift of the Good News of Jesus.  Remember, that God has forgiven yesterday, is with you today and has already, generously, taken care of tomorrow.  Amen.