Daily Devotional: When to Give

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Love your neighbor as yourself. That's easy, right? Trying to obey the commandment to serve others is challenging, especially if you are uncertain of when to give.

Matthew 10:8

“Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.”

Let’s face it. We don’t give like we should. We are in too much of a hurry to stop for a stranded motorist. We are too afraid of what someone will think. We are too worried about how much money it will cost. Hesitations like these are real. Denying them is foolish. How, then, do we freely give?
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Jesus tells us to be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect. We clearly fail. However, Christ in us does not fail. The only way to be perfect, the only way to do without fail the perfect will of our Father, is to step aside and give full control to Jesus. Yes, it is terrifying. After all, you like knowing where you are going next. When you truly surrender your life to Christ, you don’t know what will happen in the next five minutes. Then again, do you really know now?

A man I know loves to plan. His family jokes that he makes spreadsheets for his spreadsheets. While on a trip to meet his relatives, he spent hours figuring out the perfect sleeping arrangement. Who would get the beds? Who would get the couches? How many inflatable mattresses were there? After all of his time finding the perfect arrangement, when it came time to sleep, do you think people followed his plan? The kids wanted to go here, the aunts and uncles wanted to go here, and everybody scattered and found their own place to sleep and were perfectly content with how it went.

We spend all of our time structuring how we want life to go, but, in the end, all of our plans scatter. We have more peace if we never bother to make a plan at all. The circumstances of life, just like the relatives, never do what we predict but instead scatter and rearrange themselves outside of our control. Why pretend that we can control them? In essence, that is all a plan is: the attempt to predict and control life. 

“For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”

When we try to control our life, we push aside Jesus. We do not allow Him to direct our lives. Without Him, where are we? Bound for hell. Only Jesus leads us to God. To neglect Him is to neglect our salvation. Yet we constantly do such by forming our own plans and rejecting His direction. The only way to ensure that you are in God’s will, the only way to ensure that you are not rejecting Christ’s plan for your life, is to completely surrender every second of every day to His command.

When you wake up, ask what He wants you to do. Do not immediately begin making your grocery list, deciding who is going to take the kids where, or how you are going to answer your boss when you get to work. Step back, and ask Christ to direct your steps. Ask Him how He wants your day to unfold. Let Him speak to you about every choice in life. When you do this, when you lose everything you planned for your life, you gain the rich life of Christ. You gain the life He has for you. Can you see that losing your life in Christ is not a sacrifice at all?

“I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”

Cling to your plans, to what is convenient, and you miss the abundant life. If you want to be great, if you want to do great things for Christ, let go of your plans, your desires, and your expectations. Listen to the Holy Spirit as He whispers directions to your heart. If there is a need that you can meet, He will reveal it to you. He will even show you how you can meet that need. Serving others is not a mystic task; it simply part of a life completely surrendered the Christ. If you lose your life, you will become a great servant for Christ, knowing exactly when and how much to give.

• Reflection: Do you allow your plans, your “life,” to overrule Christ’s desires for you? Leave a comment below to share how God is transforming your life.