It's not what you give, it's how you give that counts!

2 Corinthians 9:6-7 The Passion Translation (TPT)

6 Here’s my point. A stingy sower[a] will reap a meager harvest, but the one who sows from a generous spirit will reap an abundant harvest. 7 Let giving flow from your heart, not from a sense of religious duty. Let it spring up freely from the joy of giving—all because God loves hilarious generosity![b]

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Let me begin by wishing all of my readers a very happy and blessed holiday season! At the end of this blog please click on the link to receive my free Christmas gift to you.

As you all know, this is the time of year where people experience all kinds of emotions. Even though it is touted as the most wonderful time of the year, it rarely feels that way for most people. Even though we know it is coming every single year on the exact date, most people still feel the stress of it for one reason or another. And let me tell you, the stress isn’t about what to cook. It isn’t about what the weather will be or if you have to work or not. It isn’t about how many days the kids will be out of school or the amount of weight you are likely to gain eating all those Christmas cookies.

No, I am talking about the stress that is centered around giving.

Who to give to?

How much to spend?

Who to eliminate?

Who to avoid?

Just the other day I was in one of the stores looking for a non-holiday gift. As I was headed towards the checkout line, I see this woman walking towards me. She was probably in her sixties. She was holding three nice gifts in her hand with the ugliest look on her face. I honestly wanted to walk up to her and beg her to put the gifts back. It was very clear that she was not in the Christmas spirit but felt forced to purchase gifts.

Now I don’t know if she couldn’t afford them, if she simply hated shopping, of if she was forced to buy gifts regardless of her budget or her feelings. All I know is that I was happy that she was not purchasing a gift for me. If her facial expression was any indication of the condition of her heart, then I felt sorry for the receiver but even more so for the giver. According to our text, that lady had nothing to look forward to.

I don’t know how gift giving goes for you during this time of year. For me, I have learned to make it less stressful than it used to be. You see there was a time when my focus was on the size and the amount of the gift. I would go into debt trying to make sure that everybody on my list got what I felt fit the season. I bought into all of the marketing suggestions. My heart was often filled with dread as I tried to figure out how to pay for it all. I thought that is what it meant to be a generous giver.

But one day, I got the revelation of 2 Corinthians 9:6-7:

6 Here’s my point. A stingy sower[a] will reap a meager harvest, but the one who sows from a generous spirit will reap an abundant harvest. 7 Let giving flow from your heart, not from a sense of religious duty. Let it spring up freely from the joy of giving—all because God loves hilarious generosity![b]

This scripture isn’t talking about the size of my gift or the amount of it. It is talking about the size of my heart and the amount of joy that flows from my heart when I give!!!

Let me tell you, the first Christmas that I gave what my budget allowed was one of the best holidays ever. Every gift that I selected was one that came from my heart with the purposeful intent of blessing and not impressing the receiver.

Now, this new insight does not give me a license to choose cheap and thoughtless gifts. That is never in my heart to do. What it did was opened up an opportunity for me to seek God’s guidance in gift giving. It opened up the opportunity for my creative juices to flow. And it opened up the opportunity for me to budget and plan for the time of year that comes every year, at the same time on the same date!

Blessings!

Here’s my free gift to you. Click the link to receive my free e-book entitled, The "F" Factor!