Month: May 2023

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The Great Grace of Giving

Femi is a college student from Nigeria pursuing his degree here in Columbus. He asked me to mentor him, so we meet weekly to discuss real-life issues within the context of God’s Word. Femi has learned much, and I’d have to say he has influenced me, as well. Take giving, for example. “When it comes to giving and receiving gifts,” my young friend recently shared, “I’m always happy either way, but giving makes me happier—I know I’ve been a blessing to someone.” Femi has experienced what Jesus promised: “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”1 Perhaps you have encountered the same. Yet Femi also confessed the tension inherent in giving: “Giving requires grace, because sometimes it is difficult; there are other things you want to do with that money. Giving is not by my strength, but by God’s grace.”

God is gracious by nature, and in lovingkindness He pours out His favor on us, not as our due, but as His gift. He loves to give grace, and we love to receive it. Yet only recently did I come to realize that giving is a form of grace; it is divine favor extended to us. Writing to Corinthian believers, Paul posited the impoverished Macedonians as exemplars of giving. “We want you to know . . . about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part.”2 Without two denarii to rub together, these humble believers yet prevailed upon the apostles, “begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints.”3 They humble us still today.

So how is giving a form of grace? Our generosity yields Kingdom impact. Paul continues, “Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.”4 In our heart of hearts, isn’t this what we want—fruitful lives of meaning? Moreover, God’s grace of giving ultimately returns glory to Him, for those whose needs are met “will glorify God because of your submission that comes from your confession of the gospel of Christ, and the generosity of your contribution.”5 This is what happens when we give in grace. Yet maybe giving is for you a growth area, as it is for me. If so, we pray together . . .

Father, transform our minds, that we would see giving not in terms of our temporary worldly loss, but Your eternal Kingdom gain. May we receive Your great grace of giving, and walk in it with wisdom, faith, and joy. Amen.

1 Acts 20:35
2 2 Corinthians 8:1-2
3 2 Corinthians 8:4
4 2 Corinthians 9:8
5 2 Corinthians 9:13

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The Promises of God amid the Tragedies of Life

My brother and I awoke one Sunday morning to commotion in the hallway below. Hurrying down the winding staircase, we saw before us our father lying on a stretcher, suffering a heart attack. Mom told us, “I’m going to the hospital. Go upstairs and pray.” So there we sat in our bedroom, Eric at age nine and me at age seven, praying every way we knew how, that Dad would live. When my mother returned, we ran to her. “How is he?” we asked. “He’s dead,” she replied. Our world changed that day.

It can be difficult to reconcile the promises of God with the tragedies of life. I had been taught to trust that God hears our prayers and answers them, yet when it came to the most important plea in a child’s life, my ask went unfulfilled. Afterward, though I petitioned in hope, there was often an accompanying element of anxiety and doubt, especially when praying for healing. Then one day beamed a glimmer of light—a Biblical event shining clarity into my soul. It was the story of three exiled Hebrews brought before the Babylonian king for not worshiping an image he had made. Threatened with a furnace for noncompliance, they answered him, “If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”1 There it was—both faith in God’s power and submission to God’s sovereignty. God wields His power within His larger plan; neither negates the other. Didn’t Jesus, facing torture and sacrificial death, express the same in Gethsemane? “My Father,” He pleaded, “if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will.”2 If Jesus subjected His will to God’s sovereign purpose and plan, can we do likewise? Yes, we can. For He answers our prayers with love, power and wisdom that exceed our own.

Epilogue. For decades it seemed to me that death had consumed my father’s life that July morning in 1965, and with it, our family happiness. Yet once more it was Scripture showing me the opposite, for as Paul wrote to the Corinthians, we long to “clothed . . . with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.”3 Death need not consume our life, for in Christ life swallows up our death. We live in this glorious hope.

Father, thank You that you hear us when we pray; we know that You always do.4 We choose this day to trust in Your power and submit to Your sovereignty. Lord, in Your mercy, hear our prayer. Amen.

1 Daniel 3:16-17 NIV [emphasis added]
2 Matthew 26:390 NASB [emphasis added]
3 2 Corinthians 5:4 NIV [emphasis added]
4 John 11:41-42

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An Invitation to Redirection

It was Bruce Cameron who invited me to participate as a volunteer in what would be my first Kairos prison ministry weekend. I had always had a heart for the incarcerated— not in the sense of minimizing their crimes, but imagining the overwhelming sense of failure and hopelessness— so when Bruce asked, I said, “yes.” Likewise, when Rich Mendola invited Peggy and me to participate in International Friendships’ (IFI) Friday night Bible study, we agreed. Through IFI, we had hosted many international students in our home over the years, building warm relationships along the way, so this was a natural step into deeper involvement. In retrospect, accepting these two invitations marked a seismic shift in my spiritual journey, for God worked through these ministries to redirect my gaze outwardly.

One of the last lessons Jesus taught on earth was that following Him means applying internal learning through external doing. After washing each of His disciples’ feet, He addressed them all: “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.”1 In essence, Jesus was exemplifying the two greatest commandments: Love God with everything you are, and love others as much as you love yourself. “On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets,”2 He had once said.

Yet over time we find that joining God’s invitations to serve others doesn’t feel like “law” at all; rather, as Paul refreshingly proclaims, “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”3 And when we follow the Spirit’s lead into the “good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do,”4 we experience the joy of obedience. For “the obedience that comes from faith”5 is not a means of earning God’s approval, but the joyful celebration that, in Christ, we already have it and the proclamation that others can, too.

God does equip us for His work, and He will call us to it. Some invitations may seem “bigger,” such as ongoing involvement in an established ministry, yet most will seem “smaller,” like the friend who cries out in despair, needing comfort, truth, and hope. Truth is, they’re all big. So watch expectantly and listen carefully. Then go eagerly.

Father, thank You for involving us in Your work. What a great gift of purpose! Draw us close, that we would know Your heart, speak clearly, that we may hear Your voice, and strengthen us in Your Spirit to go bear fruit for You. In Christ we pray. Amen.

1 John 13:13-17 NIV [emphasis added]
2 Matthew 22:40
3 2 Corinthians 3:17 [emphasis added]
4 Ephesians 2:10 NIV
5 Romans 1:5 NIV