The Purpose for Giving (Part 2)

As you may have suspected, I am one of those people who has been giving faithfully and wondering where the blessing is. I've been hearing one testimony after another how God is blessing his people. Through it all, I've had one question. "WHERE'S MINE?!"

I'm a believer, I attend a spirit-filled church, I'm involved in the music ministry at that church that I know God has called me into. I have a wonderful, loving wife and a perfect daughter who's beautiful inside and out. Some would think that I've got it all together.

And they would be wrong. Oh, I'm blessed...I am definitely blessed. But only through the grace and love of Jesus Christ. I am far from perfect, with a whole lot still to learn.

The truth is, God has been taking me to the woodshed when it comes to the reason why I give -- why I do anything for that matter. The questions that has permeated my soul lately is, "What is the purpose for my giving?"

I found myself answering that question with things like, "to do the right thing" or "to help feed the hungry" or "to help those in need." But the question kept coming up. When I finally searched deeper, I realized that I was giving what I thought were the right answers, not the honest answer.

The honest answer: I was looking at my situation and giving to get out of it. When you strip everything away and get down to where the rubber meets the road, I wasn't really giving to help others. I was giving for the purpose of receiving. I was giving for myself.

You can plant a seed in fertile ground, but if the seed itself is bad it will never reap a harvest. In other words, when you give to a worthwhile cause but with selfish intention, you'll never see a complete turnaround in your life that your looking for. And any blessing you do get will be temporal.

Feeding the hungry is a worthwhile thing to do, but food is a temporal blessing, not lasting.When it comes to the purpose for giving, the only WAY to a complete and lasting turnaround in your life is to give for the purpose of spreading the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. In that there is real, lasting power.

That is why, with this post, I am rededicating Recipes for Hope to spreading the Gospel and sharing the love of Jesus Christ. Afterall, Jesus is THE true recipe for hope.