HOW TO BE A CHEERFUL GIVER

Have you ever given with a good intention but still felt bad about giving? Your thoughts try to question your actions and you find yourself struggling with them. Yes! This sometimes happen, especially when you give the wrong way. Giving is an act and requires grace. There is an infallible method of giving that if followed properly, not only will you never regret giving but equally attain the benefits that follows the grace, I call them the appropriate steps of giving.

There are three steps to beneficial unregretful giving; a proper implementation of these steps would give you warm feelings of joy as your giving would be cheerful.

Cheerful giving is the best form of giving, and these steps can teach even the stingiest natured person to give cheerfully.

STEP ONE:

LEARN TO GIVE TO GOD

One can understand why this could be a difficult step. Even back in bible times when God spoke to man directly, when there were no churches or temples, Cain still found it difficult to offer proper gifts to God, let alone now, in this generation where most people feel we are only enriching our pastors and churches as God no longer sweep through offerings with fire to show his acceptance as in the case of Elijah.

Still God requires that we offer him thanks; he expects that we must be able to give him from the gifts that he has given us. Take the story of Abraham as a case study, after years of searching for a son through his beloved wife Sarah, he was finally blessed with Isaac, only to be asked to give him back to God in offering; without questions Abraham obeyed. He rose up early in the morning and made to obey his God but at the point of offering his son, an angel of the Lord stopped him and provided an alternative for the offering; but more importantly, he blessed Abraham because of his actions, a blessing still been ripped today.

“As base a thing as money often is, yet it can be transmuted into everlasting treasure. It can be converted into food for the hungry and clothing for the poor. It can keep missionary actively winning lost men to the light of the gospel and thus transmute itself into heavenly values. Any temporal possession can be turned into everlasting wealth. Whatever is given to Christ is immediately touched with immortality.” - A.W. Tozer (1897-1963), American pastor and writer

Today, we see a lot of discouraging things in our churches that might discourage you from giving, this is why giving to God must come first; because it is the most difficult but also the most rewarding (remember Abraham). It is only when you appreciate God for what he has done for you that he does more, and I must add, when giving to God; you have to be as generous as you expect him to be generous to you. I know a young man who is about twenty-eight, he never misses church on Sundays, and he gives his offering to God every time, but the funny thing about his offerings is that for over the twenty years he has been attending church, he has never given more than a fifty Nigerian naira at each service. It’s strange that we expect God to increase our blessings, but each year we never increase our offerings, even with all the growth.

STEP TWO:

LEARN TO GIVE YOURSELF

You must have heard about the pay-yourself-first theory, but what you probably don’t know about this theory is how effective it is in improving our act of giving. Make no mistake, every man has a little attribute of greed, and our efforts to kill that desire gives room for our generosity to grow.

In Matthew 19:19, and again in Matthew 22:39, Christ commands us to love our neighbors as we love ourselves, in other words before you can show love to another, you must first learn to love yourself, just as the expression goes “one cannot give, what one does not possess” learn to be generous with yourself and it would be even easier to be generous to another. Take time out from your schedule, buy yourself a drink, get that thing which your heart desires, do things to satisfy your positive desires, by doing this you gradually suppress the greed in you and it becomes easier to be not just a giver, but a cheerful one.

“Giving yourself some loving attention is not selfish. It is sensible. If you feel loved and cherished--even if it is only by yourself--then you will have more love to give to others, too.” ― Penelope Quest, Reiki for Life: A Complete Guide to Reiki Practice

STEP THREE:

LEARN TO GIVE OTHERS

Erich Fromm said “the secret to life is love”. The act of love is synonymous with charity, and even our creator showed us the depth of his love by giving his only son to die for us. Unless we learn to be generous to others our life is incomplete, and we will often feel empty.

When you follow these steps, you feel the cheerfulness in your actions of generosity; at this third step, it is easier to give to others as we feel satisfied. Though, we must be careful in executing these steps as sacrifice is also a very powerful virtue but like the scripture asked, “is obedience not better than sacrifice?” we have been commanded to love our neighbors as we love ourselves and if you can scale through step two, it is obligatory to fulfill step three.

In helping others, we shall help ourselves, for whatever good we give out completes the circle and comes back to us. - Flora Edwards

There is also so much to gain from helping others, the Cubanguy would ask you to consider your life as a saw puzzle with missing pieces; endlessly we put pieces together but still end up incomplete, if you are too busy with your own needs that you refuse to help others, you will eventually end up helpless yourself. Many feel they need to have enough before they can help someone else, and this may sound logical but it’s not always true for like Dan Kelly said “sometimes it is in the process of healing another’s heart that you heal your own.” Let me share a story I once read with you.

“As we work to create light for others, we naturally light our own way.” ― Mary Anne Radmacher

A woman lost her husband; struggling with the pain she went to visit a traditional priest for help and was told to bring a picture frame from a house that has never known sorrow, in her search, she came across a house that was no doubt filled with wealth, “definitely, my search would end here” she said to herself and entered the house, after making her request, the occupants of the house apologized to her that they cannot be of help as theirs is not such a home, they went on to narrate their painful moments and events, then she found herself consoling them as their pains were far greater than hers. Leaving the house, she entered another, and another, moving from town to town, but each time, she found herself consoling the occupants and soon she forgot about her own sorrows.

You can get more stories like this HERE

Yet again our selfish nature is satisfied here, for as Twin Federman said, “people love others not for who they are, but for how they make them feel”. Let’s end this chapter with the words of Dr. Albert Schweitizer he said, “I don’t know what your destiny would be, but one thing I know; the only ones among you who would be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to love.”

“You can give without loving, but you can never love without giving.” ― Robert Louis Stevenson