Post by Cindy on Dec 4, 2015 7:36:17 GMT -5
This is the season our mailboxes are filled with stacks of mail-order catalogs, and the television is full of advertisements of all kinds of shiny new things wrapped up with red bows. Through their colorful pictures and creative words, advertisers seek to convince us that we don’t have enough stuff—that we need more, newer, better. It is their job to convince us to feel dissatisfied and discontented with what we have. They want to feed our natural desires for more than we really need.
So how will our family respond to all the messages around us this time of year? How can we make sure that Christmas in our house is about more than making lists of the stuff we want and figuring out what to give to other people? Do we really need to keep collecting more stuff and spending more money on ourselves? Can we stop believing the lie that the more we get, the more satisfied we’ll be?
By putting our focus on giving to others and meeting their very real needs, we can battle the greed in our hearts. Christmas is a season not of getting, but of giving, because at Christmas we are celebrating that God is the most generous and outrageous Giver in the universe. After all, he gave us his Son. Proverbs says, “Some people are always greedy for more, but the godly love to give!” (Proverbs 21:26). To pour ourselves into becoming outrageous givers is to pursue becoming more like God. God turns greedy, grasping, fearful hoarders into generous, honest, cheerful givers.
To become givers, we have to decide not to listen to the voice inside us that tells us we must keep a tight grip on what we have so we will never be in need. We have to reject the lie that money in the bank and a pantry full of food takes care of our needs, remembering that ultimately it is God who takes care of all our needs. We have to tell ourselves the truth about God—that because he has been so generous in giving us Jesus, we can be confident that he will give us everything we need. We take him at his word, believing that he can satisfy us and that he will bless us as we give to others. We trust his promise that “it is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35).
Prayer
Generous, giving God, we want to put your word to the test this Christmas. We want to find out for ourselves how happy it will make us to give. We want to become generous givers like you are, confident that you will take care of all our needs.
* * *
Discussion Starters
• What do you find yourself dreaming of getting? What do you find yourself dreaming of giving?
• When have you experienced or observed someone else enjoying the happiness that comes from outrageous giving?
• This Christmas, how can our family avoid the trap of making Christmas only about getting stuff?
More from the Bible about—
Giving and Greed:
Since [God] did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else? ROMANS 8:32
A greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world. EPHESIANS 5:5
Guthrie, N. (2011). Let every heart prepare him room: Daily family devotions for advent.
So how will our family respond to all the messages around us this time of year? How can we make sure that Christmas in our house is about more than making lists of the stuff we want and figuring out what to give to other people? Do we really need to keep collecting more stuff and spending more money on ourselves? Can we stop believing the lie that the more we get, the more satisfied we’ll be?
By putting our focus on giving to others and meeting their very real needs, we can battle the greed in our hearts. Christmas is a season not of getting, but of giving, because at Christmas we are celebrating that God is the most generous and outrageous Giver in the universe. After all, he gave us his Son. Proverbs says, “Some people are always greedy for more, but the godly love to give!” (Proverbs 21:26). To pour ourselves into becoming outrageous givers is to pursue becoming more like God. God turns greedy, grasping, fearful hoarders into generous, honest, cheerful givers.
To become givers, we have to decide not to listen to the voice inside us that tells us we must keep a tight grip on what we have so we will never be in need. We have to reject the lie that money in the bank and a pantry full of food takes care of our needs, remembering that ultimately it is God who takes care of all our needs. We have to tell ourselves the truth about God—that because he has been so generous in giving us Jesus, we can be confident that he will give us everything we need. We take him at his word, believing that he can satisfy us and that he will bless us as we give to others. We trust his promise that “it is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35).
Prayer
Generous, giving God, we want to put your word to the test this Christmas. We want to find out for ourselves how happy it will make us to give. We want to become generous givers like you are, confident that you will take care of all our needs.
* * *
Discussion Starters
• What do you find yourself dreaming of getting? What do you find yourself dreaming of giving?
• When have you experienced or observed someone else enjoying the happiness that comes from outrageous giving?
• This Christmas, how can our family avoid the trap of making Christmas only about getting stuff?
More from the Bible about—
Giving and Greed:
Since [God] did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else? ROMANS 8:32
A greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world. EPHESIANS 5:5
Guthrie, N. (2011). Let every heart prepare him room: Daily family devotions for advent.
!!
