Hey Life Speak Family,
I hope you are having a great time in this festive season!
Thought i would share a personal story with you that happened this week. I was Buying Gifts online just the other day for many of my friends and family. As i kept adding things to my cart I noticed that the overall price for my order wasn’t pleasant to my eyes. Bewilderment began to set in as i started talking to my wife about our budget. I began saying thing like.. “is it really necessary to give these things to those people.. etc. my shopping, and gift giving were being done out of a sense of duty, because during Christmas season you are socially responsible to give gifts to friends and extended family. I wasn’t doing it because i was excited to bless them. I began looking for the cheapest things i could find,things that “Looked nice” or “Reflected personal thought” but didn’t cost
that much, so they would think i spent a lot on them, or spent a lot of time on them when really i didn’t. While shopping like this for a couple hours it hit me how petty i was being. The Lord reminded me of his words in Matthew 6. The passion translation conveys the heart of what i’m saying the best,
“Examine your motives to make sure you’re not showing off when you do your good deeds, only to be admired by others; otherwise, you will lose the reward of your heavenly Father.” Matthew 6:1
He talks about giving to the poor, praying, and fasting throughout this chapter, and with each
topic He brings up, He echo’s the sentiments in Mathew 6:1. That the only reward you will receive is the momentary approval of that other person, you won’t make your father in heaven smile with your generosity, nor will God be able to be generous in kind if your generosity is done with selfish motives. It always has been, and always will be about the heart behind what you do, and not just what you do. Your motives are just as important if not more so then the action even if the action is obedience. Its like asking the child to shut the door, and they slam it shut while screaming “Fine”. They may have obeyed, but their heart wasn’t right, and as a parent you’d take issue with that.
When we Pray it shouldn’t be for others to marvel at our eloquence, when we fast it should be flaunted to prove our piety, and when we give gifts, it shouldn’t be with any selfish motives, or thoughts of personal gain at all, All of these things should be done as an expression of our love for God, and for people.
And when you give selflessly, The gift you give may not change, the reaction they give may not change, your budget may prevent you from getting all that you want at this time, but your heart will be pure and full of joy because your gift was about blessing them, and not altering their perception of you. God takes pleasure in his kids giving gifts to each other just because
that want to! Its easy to be stressed this Christmas season, because of all the family you see, all the extra strains you have on your budget, and all of the extra events you have adding busyness to your life. But do not give into the stress and allow it to push you into survival mode where you are trying to manage all of the things falling out of balance, instead choose to cultivate a lifestyle of thanksgiving during this season. Be thankful for all the things you do have, that you are able to give a gift at all! Doing this, will always keep your heart right where it needs to be.
So… After being reminded of some of these things, i apologized to the lord for allowing my perspective to become a skewed, and i began to shop with joy in my heart without any bewilderment on my face. I am excited to approach the Christmas season, to bless all those people and show them my love for them. I can hardly wait, because for this month i’m in the same business my heavenly daddy is in, The Blessing Business!
God bless you all, I hope you know i pray over my readers. If you don’t have anyone in your life praying for you, then know that if nothing else you have me in your corner. I’m praying for you. We are all in this thing called life together, and no one needs to go at it alone. So feel free to reach out to me if you have a personal prayer request, also if you know someone who would like to part of our Community, then let them know about the blog so we can all connect with our God and walk through life together as brothers and sisters! Love you all, -Jake
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