Looking at Life Thru God's Glasses: Getting or Giving

LOOKING AT LIFE THRU GOD’S GLASSES: GETTING OR GIVING – PART 7

Looking through human glasses, we see getting. Looking through God’s glasses, we are able to see giving. A spirit of getting is a result of our natural selfishness. The spirit of giving is the result of God’s grace helping us to see things from a different perspective.

“The greedy only wants to get, while the Godly only wants to give.” (Proverbs 21:26) Jesus himself said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” (Acts 20:35) This is demonstrated so clearly by two great bodies of water in Israel. I’ve visited there on several occasions and had the privilege of seeing first hand this principle.

One body of water is the Sea of Galilee. It’s very beautiful. Jesus spent much of his time teaching there. It has green foliage around the edges of the water. It is filled with fish. It has life. It depicts beauty and it pours itself out to fertilize the Jordan plain. It is always giving what it receives.

The other body of water is the Dead Sea. It’s dead because nothing lives around it or in it. It is so salty that you can literally wade out in the water and the saltiness will keep you afloat. I have done that!

The reason it’s dead is that it has no outlet. It keeps everything for itself. It is always getting and keeping, and that leads to death.

The two bodies of water in Israel both come from the same source. It’s the same water which flows down from the heights of Hermon and the roots of the Cedars of Lebanon. It flows first into the Sea of Galilee, then is passed along to the Dead Sea. The same water – one sea gives and lives – the other sea gets, keeps, and dies. Our lives are either like the Dead Sea or the Sea of Galilee.

My good friend, John “Rat” Riley, told me about his granddaughter, Isabella, who at that time was 13 years old. She lived in Atlanta. John often speaks at a business function there, and he invited Isabella to go with him.

While they were riding in the car, she told him that she had become a certified babysitter. Isabella then started talking about her concern for the poor. She knew that John had been involved with World Vision and helping adopt children. She told him that she wanted to give financially to sponsor a child.

He told her that the cost would be a dollar a day. She looked a bit surprised and said, “Oh!” He assumed that $1 a day, $30 a month would take a pretty good chunk of a 13-year-old’s babysitting money, and that would be too much. Maybe she wanted to do less to try to support a child.

John was shocked when Isabella looked at him and said, “In that case, I want to sponsor two children!”

Jesus confronted a wealthy man one day who was a “getter.” He asked about conditions for following Jesus, and He told him that he would have to shift from “getting” to “giving.” One of the saddest pictures in the New Testament is the man refusing to change. (Luke 18:18-25)

Are you getting or giving?