Dave's Diary

This week we are seeking to appreciate the art and blessing of loving others through generosity and the giving of gifts (with no strings attached). Loving like Jesus inevitably involves the giving of oneself and whatever one has, in the best interest of others.

Daily Readings: Proverbs 22:9 and Proverbs 28:27

“⁹ The generous will themselves be blessed, for they share their food with the poor” … “²⁷ Those who give to the poor will lack nothing.”

These wonderful promises of God’s Word assure us that we can never outgive God. Everything we have in our possession has come to us as a gift from God. So, if we apply some of those possessions to meet someone else’s need or to bless them with a gift of pure generosity, we can rest assured that God’s blessing rests on us. When God observes us being faithful with the little He has entrusted to us, He will trust us with more and more responsibility, and greater resources to match.

For me personally, “charity” is the first word that comes to mind when I read the two proverbs above about generosity to the poor. Some look down on the word as if charity has condescending implications. In fact, “charity” derives from the Latin word “charitas” which was used when translating the Greek New Testament word for love (“agape”) in the Latin Bible. And for many centuries it was defined in English as “Christian love for others”.

Can you imagine that there was a time when society in general so closely associated the act of selfless giving with Christians that a purely Christian word was the only appropriate word with which to desribe it? May it become so again!

May we Christians once again become adept at the art of giving generously to others in selfless love. Amen.