GIVE MORE THAN WHAT THEY BEG
Acts 3:1-10
Giving someone will not change the world but it will change someone’s world.
We can’t give to everyone but everyone can give to someone.
This is what we want to achieve the goodness within us ripples until it becomes a miracle.
Is it not a miracle to see everyday people living happy and content because there is abundance and no one is lacking not because everyone is rich as Warren Buffet; but because everyone discovers the joy and principle of sharing?
There is greater joy in giving that God is teaching this to us. The joy the giver have is more than the joy experienced by the recipient.
That the blessings of someone who gives are far greater than the one who receives.
IS IT A RECKLESS DECISION?
We learned that giving is not a reckless decision at all.
Because we understood that it is in giving that the more we received.
There is more joy in giving than in receiving alone.
OUR PRESENCE is our PRESENT
We can give without loving but we cannot truly love without giving.
We cannot consecrate our all by giving our treasures alone.
Because sometimes, God and other people don’t need your money but they need your time.
Sometimes, our time is better than any dime; our presence is the best present we can give to a person.
Our presence cannot be replaced by any material things.
For those OFW with family miles away, we usually equate our presence with our dear ones with material things. We translate our love for them with goods, gadgets, and comfortable life.
But there are times that they don’t need our money, they long for our presence, tangible love.
Good that in this digital era, we can fill the gap of our absence by the use of social sites through FB, Messenger, WhatsApp, Viber, IMO, and skype. Our presence with them becomes virtual.
But no matter how it is, the effort of making ourselves available to them cannot be discounted.
PETER HADE GAVE MORE
In the reading of Acts 3:1-10 12, Peter and John on the third hour of the afternoon for prayer, going up to the temple a man lame from birth begs them for money. Peter looked straight at him and did John, said to the man “Look at us! Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have, I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong. He jumped to his feet and began to walk.
A poor beggar received more than what he expected.
Because Peter and John, have given more than what the man asked.
They had given what they only have, their TIME and Jesus who is in them.
In this part of the talk, we will share how & why you have to give more than what others beg of you:
1. GIVE THEM RELATIONSHIPS NOT OWNERSHIP
If we want to improve our relationship with others, even if it’s your spouse, your children, your parents, or other people; we need to spend quality time with them.
Because you cannot replace our presence with material things.
Sometimes, people don’t need our money.
They need our time.
Because the time we devote to others sends a message that they are important to us.
The time devoted by Peter and John to a beggar on the street helps the man to understand that respect for oneself is more than a small coin he can receive.
The sense of touch and sight was felt by the beggar when he looked at the disciple’s eyes and that feeling flowed when Peter reached out his hand to the man.
This power of touch and sight is missing in a virtual and digital relationship.
I wonder about seeing couples in a cozy restaurant, dining together but they don’t look at each other their eyes were hooked on their own phone.
Leave that gadget behind for a while and start a good talk, look at each other’s eyes and connect.
This is what the lame beggar felt when he looked at Peter and John.
Connection.
Our time spent sending a clear message that you are near and available on time that they need us.
Another act of good deed is by the Good Samaritan. A businessman and a traveler where time is gold; he dared to spare his time to carry the man to his horse and brought him to care in a hotel and paid for it.
2. GIVE THEM OUR GOD NOT YOUR GOLD
We cannot truly consecrate by giving what we really have by giving our treasures alone because it is not enough.
Share to them our God when we give.
Let them know that we are just a channel of God’s goodness; that every blessing we share with them is not from us but the fruit of God’s goodness and generosity to us.
We let them realize that God is alive through us. We become Jesus to someone.
We become a living manifestation that God is real because they can sense, they can feel that He is working through us.
The reason why many desperate people don’t believe that God cares is that they don’t experience that sympathy, that empathy from people who were blessed.
The ultimate purpose of our blessing is that we become a blessing to someone who is in need.
Because all the things that we have, time treasures, and talents all come from Him alone.
Let them realize that what they receive does not come from us, but we are only sharing the blessing that we received from God.
Don’t ask them to repay you, but let them do exactly what you did to the next person with the same experience and situation.
Ask them to do other what you did to them, let that goodness ripple and daily we will see miracles. The goodness they received shall be the same goodness they will share.
Giving our God to them is empowering them to stand in their own faith and relationship with God.
By sharing with them our God, let them discover a wonderful relationship with our Master and let that relationship be intimate and personal with God.
3. GIVE THEM WHAT THEY REALLY NEED
Sometimes our intention to help is good. However, in the long term, we don’t help but rather let them be lazy, lame, and selfish.
We teach them to be too much dependent on the moment that it paralyzes them and kills us as well.
The problem sometimes with us, we let them paralyze their thinking because every decision should be coming from us. We limit their ability to think for themselves.
Don’t give them the fish but teach them how to fish.
You can empower them by teaching and sharing with them what you know and how they could be able to maximize their time and resources.
Give to our children what they only need. Don’t just give our children the taste of our wealth but teach them what made us wealthy. Don’t just give them your riches, show them how you did it. Teach them your passion, your vision, your mission, the right character, and outlooks in life so that they could have their own.
I think it’s not right that we only give food to the beggar to eat, it is hard work but we need to transform them to be a better part of our society. They need to regain their identity and integrity so that they could somehow be contributors to the common good of the community.
We should give them a chance instead of giving them a label that reminds them of their inability to be part of the community.
4. GIVE THEM MOTIVATION AND NOT DISSUASION
Some people give but they let that opportunity to judge them and blackmail people, their relatives, or even their kin.
They don’t need our judgment.
We should not use our giving to let others look stupid or use them for our own propaganda of being self-righteous.
5. GIVE THEM LOVE NOT PITY
What people need from us is not our pity but our love.
We can only strengthen their belief in themselves if we show them our trust and belief that they can do it alone.
The more we pity them, the more we let them stay in their miserable conditions.
You give not because you expect to receive but because you love.
Like the Good Samaritan, what he had given is the best out of his love and kindness without expecting any form of return.
Some people make friends because they have a vested interest in you.
Do we want to partake in a Mission of God to mankind by giving our time, treasure, and talents?
Do we want to have that happy and fruitful relationship?
Do we want to experience deeper peace of mind with God?
It is not that we are giving our time to God and man but actually, we are seizing that time we spent in our favor to experience His immense and glorious presence.
GOD’S EYE ON THE GIVER
Our giving cannot be hidden from the eyes of God. He is observant.
Every second, every time, every giving that we are doing is known to the Lord.
That is why we give our time and talent with joy.
He knows how much we give and the more, He knows how we value every act of giving we are doing.
May you always become Jesus to somebody,
Mikesendon
Mikesendon's Sparksofwisdom 