We’ve all heard that it is more blessed to give than receive. But do we realize that when we live generously, we develop a new kind of heart?
My kids make me the most proud when I see them being kind to others who don’t give them anything back except gratitude. This is my youngest daughter at the park making sure that all the younger kids have a good time as she pushes the equipment and is careful that no one falls off or gets left behind.
In this world, it sometimes feels as if the rich and powerful get there by ruthless determination and manipulation. I love how God shows us another way in the book of Ruth. In this book, there was a man named Boaz who was rich and powerful but talked to his field laborers with kindness even though he was an upper-class Israelite. He treated others like they mattered.
One day a poor woman from another culture that Israelites looked down upon, came to his grain field to pick up the leftovers. Because Boaz was in the habit of being kind to others, he immediately asked about her and quickly realized that she was also in the habit of practicing kindness to others. She had given up her own culture and country to follow and care for her mother-in-law in a foreign country.
Neither Boaz nor Ruth were kind in order to receive something back in return, but because of their generosity of heart, Boaz and Ruth found one another and were married. Their great-grandson was King David and their line produced the Savior of the entire world, Jesus Christ, who blesses us with the most generous gift of all….His own life.
As I watch my kids grow and mature into adults, my prayer is always that they learn that having a giving heart is part of having God’s heart. That’s who God is. In love, He laid down His life. Because of love, He gave everything He had to every single person in this entire world who has ever lived. He gave because we needed Him. He gave because He heard our prayers. He gave because no one else had what we needed.
King David would grow up to ask God to give him a clean heart. And even in the pain of giving His own life to save others, Jesus knew the power of giving. With His last breath He said “It is Finished” because He had given the whole world what we needed more than anything…
a new heart…a clean heart…HIS Heart
a heart that is free to know the power of living generously
sallythetall 