The practice of generous giving is difficult for a person with Scottish blood in their veins. At least that could be my excuse. More true is the simple fact that often I don’t trust God to supply all my needs when I need something, so hoard whatever stuff I have, “just in case” I need it.
But I’m learning. Last weekend I gave away a lot of my time, and with the size of my to-do list, this was a sacrifice. I did it for the Lord and for my family. Monday (a holiday) and yesterday, He gave it back to me. Those two days seemed to have double the normal hours, and I caught up all that I felt I’d neglected on the weekend.
2 Corinthians 9:6-8 pokes at my heart every time I read it. It says, “He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.”
God wants generous, spontaneous, willing, unpressured giving. Not out of guilt or a sense of duty. Not out of the expectations of others. Not with a tight-lipped sense of being deprived.
It happens. Last week, He put on my heart to bake a birthday cake and deliver it, late at night when I’d rather be in bed. It was a spontaneous act and I knew it was a God-thing. The day after that, someone expressed a need without any expectations from me. God put on my heart to do something about it. No pressure. Giving is easy when God is in it.
There is a totally different sense when the impulse or pressure comes from another source. When people expect something from me, or take it for granted that “good old Elsie” will do it, I feel uncomfortable, put upon. It isn’t that I don’t want to accommodate, but that God isn’t telling me to, or if He is, I cannot hear Him alongside those loud demands.
When that happens, I resist, feel guilty, and struggle with the call of God to be generous, and the words in this passage that say it should be a heart-felt, no-pressure, joyful act.
The other confusion is from Jesus’ words about “If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also.” Does that mean that I should be generous to everyone who expects it? To everyone that holds out their hand?
I don’t think so. I read this again and in context. Jesus is talking about non-retaliation, not generosity. He is not asking that I to give to every hand that is held out, or that I look the other way when someone does wrong or is aggressive. He is taking about how to behave if someone tries to do me wrong. My role is not to fight back with demands about my personal rights. Situations like this are not about my rights.
There is a point to all this. Someone is expecting me to fork over all the time, without any appreciation or concern that they are putting a burden on me. My inner fight involves my thrifty nature, selfishness, a sense of duty, and verses like “God is able to make all grace abound toward you . . . .”
Last night I heard another idea: What is best for this person? Instead of being anxious about giving or not giving and the pressures put on me, this isn’t about me. God says to be generous, yet also not to “cast your pearls” before anyone who simply gobbles them up. If my generosity makes the recipient sin all the more, then it is not generosity but enablement.
As I toss about all this and seek His will to know what to do, again I have to say that this Christian life is often complicated, but never boring.
Showing posts with label giving up my rights. Show all posts
Showing posts with label giving up my rights. Show all posts
July 4, 2007
March 22, 2007
Meek is definitely not wimpy!
Human rights is a big issue in our world. The call for rights has done great good, and some harm. Criminals have had more ‘rights’ than victims, in the minds of some. Our government is listening to those who want this corrected.
While the Bible urges God’s people to stick up for the rights of others in matters of justice and personal needs, Jesus calls His people to surrender their own personal rights. We are to let go of whatever we think is our due, and not retaliate should someone violate our dignity, liberty or personal assets.
Matthew 5 describes this “turn the other cheek” principle to people who were oppressed by the Romans. In New Testament times, Roman soldiers could compel ordinary citizens to give them their coat, or carry things for them. Jesus also mentions borrowing so that may have been part of what the Jews were suffering under Roman rule.
He tells them, “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also. And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away.”
Many people interpret such actions as ‘wimpy’ and put a ‘doormat’ and ‘no backbone’ label on anyone who lives like this. However, I’ve been studying a Bible word that is not very popular these days, probably because it raises these images. The word is meekness.
Meek people are those who obey this “turn the other cheek” thing. They do it, not because they are doormats, but because they are filled with the Holy Spirit. This is an attitude from God given to those who live in His power, who are not governed by the flesh, but are compelled by Him in all that they do.
I’m surprised. The fruit of the Spirit is “love, joy, peace” and so on in a list of qualitites that I understand, except for this one, meekness. In most modern translations, that word is not even there. They use ‘gentleness’ instead, but the original language of the Bible has another word for gentleness; this spiritual fruit is meekness. It means having a gentle spirit, a calm temper of mind. Meek people are not easily provoked. They have that inner attitude that accepts God’s dealings as good, and therefore we do not dispute or resist adversity. (However, we must resist Satan and temptation).
Being meek is the opposite of self-assertive. Meek people trust in God’s goodness and His control over all situations. They rely on God rather than their own strength to defend themselves against injustice, because they know God permits all things, including injuries people inflict on us. We know that He can use all things for good, to make us more like Jesus.
Meek people realize that God uses tough situations to purify His people and that He will deliver them in His time, so we are not to be feisty and occupied with trying to change things we don’t like. Also, a meek person is not occupied with self.
Obviously, this is a work of the Holy Spirit, not of the human will. If anyone tries to take anything from me, or demands that I do things, I’m sure I would defend my “rights.” However, I am supposed to become more and more like Jesus, and when I see how He responded to such things, and when I read His teaching about rights, I realize that I’ve a long way to grow.
I’ve decided meekness is not weakness. It takes the power of God and a deep faith in God to turn my personal ‘rights’ totally over to Him, and I’m sure wimpy people can’t do that.
While the Bible urges God’s people to stick up for the rights of others in matters of justice and personal needs, Jesus calls His people to surrender their own personal rights. We are to let go of whatever we think is our due, and not retaliate should someone violate our dignity, liberty or personal assets.
Matthew 5 describes this “turn the other cheek” principle to people who were oppressed by the Romans. In New Testament times, Roman soldiers could compel ordinary citizens to give them their coat, or carry things for them. Jesus also mentions borrowing so that may have been part of what the Jews were suffering under Roman rule.
He tells them, “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also. And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away.”
Many people interpret such actions as ‘wimpy’ and put a ‘doormat’ and ‘no backbone’ label on anyone who lives like this. However, I’ve been studying a Bible word that is not very popular these days, probably because it raises these images. The word is meekness.
Meek people are those who obey this “turn the other cheek” thing. They do it, not because they are doormats, but because they are filled with the Holy Spirit. This is an attitude from God given to those who live in His power, who are not governed by the flesh, but are compelled by Him in all that they do.
I’m surprised. The fruit of the Spirit is “love, joy, peace” and so on in a list of qualitites that I understand, except for this one, meekness. In most modern translations, that word is not even there. They use ‘gentleness’ instead, but the original language of the Bible has another word for gentleness; this spiritual fruit is meekness. It means having a gentle spirit, a calm temper of mind. Meek people are not easily provoked. They have that inner attitude that accepts God’s dealings as good, and therefore we do not dispute or resist adversity. (However, we must resist Satan and temptation).
Being meek is the opposite of self-assertive. Meek people trust in God’s goodness and His control over all situations. They rely on God rather than their own strength to defend themselves against injustice, because they know God permits all things, including injuries people inflict on us. We know that He can use all things for good, to make us more like Jesus.
Meek people realize that God uses tough situations to purify His people and that He will deliver them in His time, so we are not to be feisty and occupied with trying to change things we don’t like. Also, a meek person is not occupied with self.
Obviously, this is a work of the Holy Spirit, not of the human will. If anyone tries to take anything from me, or demands that I do things, I’m sure I would defend my “rights.” However, I am supposed to become more and more like Jesus, and when I see how He responded to such things, and when I read His teaching about rights, I realize that I’ve a long way to grow.
I’ve decided meekness is not weakness. It takes the power of God and a deep faith in God to turn my personal ‘rights’ totally over to Him, and I’m sure wimpy people can’t do that.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)