Thought for Wednesday, December 19th

December 19, 2012

How Much Is Enough

“The manner of giving is worth more than the gift.”

-       Pierre Corneille

   Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.

2 Corinthians 9:7

The giving of gifts can sometimes be tenuous and cause undo amounts of stress for the giver. 

Recently, I saw an episode of a currently popular show in which one the main characters named Sheldon was beside him self with distress when he learned that his neighbor Penny had bought him a Christmas gift.  Not knowing the value of the gift he was to receive: he was in a quandary to have a gift of equal or like value with which to reciprocate.  As it turned out the gift he was given was of such a great value to him that no gift he could give could begin to equal or match its value.

As Christians we are faced with a similar situation.  We have been given a gift, by God, of such extravagance and worth that no attempt we could ever make to reciprocate would ever match or come close to touching the value of what we have received.

So then when it comes to our giving to God; how much is enough?

We know we can never give Him what He truly deserves and we know that regardless of how much of ourselves we give it will never be equal to what He as given us: is there a limit we should set or a line we should draw; that indicates when we have given enough?

The answer to this question is obviously no: but we need to keep in mind that the attitude and heart of how we give what we give is almost equally, if not indeed more important than what we are offering as our gift.  Be it time, talent, treasure or any other thing; we need to always give out of a heart of love, willingness and a genuinely true desire to honor and please the one who has done so much for us.

Today’s Prayer

Father, I could never, ever hope to give back to you even a small portion of what you have given to me: but in all I do may it be with a right heart and attitude because I truly do want to, in every way I can, demonstrate my love to you.