Giving Joyfully and Cheerfully

We

A Hallmark of the Contented Life

Philippians 4:12–13 NLT

I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.

As we come to the end of this short series on the Contented Life, this evening we’re going to remind ourselves that one of the hallmarks of the contented life, a life we lead with a thankful heart, is generosity. When we are truly grateful for all that God gives us day by day, then that gratitude moves us to give freely to those around us. When we understand what God has given us, not just the stuff in our lives, the things he gives us, but when we understand that God gave his one and only Son for us to forgive us and to heal the relationship between God and humanity, then this moves us to acts of thanksgiving, to a greater sense of contentment in our lives and this moves us to greater love and greater generosity.

And the Bible reminds us it doesn’t matter if we have more than enough or too little, we can still choose to thank God for what he’s given us. The secret is that God gives us the strength to be content with whatever we have. Being generous to others always involves sacrifice.

On September 3, 1939, German troops invaded Bielsko, Poland. A fifteen­ year-old girl, Gerda Weissman, and her family survived in a Jewish ghetto until June of 1942. That's when Gerda was torn from her mother, kicking and screaming. Her mother, Helene, was sent to a death camp. Gerda would spend three years in a Nazi concentration camp, followed by a 350-mile death march that she somehow survived. By the time she was liberated by American troops, Gerda was a sixty-eight-pound skeleton. And in what must rank as one of the most improbable love stories ever, Gerda actually married the soldier who found her, Lieutenant Kurt Klein.

There are six glass towers at the Holocaust Memorial in Boston, Massachusetts, representing the six extermination camps where six million Jews lost their lives. Five towers tell the story of unconscionable cruelty and unimaginable suffering, but the sixth tower stands as a testimony to hope. Inscribed on it is a short story titled "One Raspberry," written by Gerda Weissman Klein.

Ilse, a childhood friend of mine, once found a raspberry in the camp and carried it in her pocket all day to present to me that night on a leaf. Imagine a world in which your entire possession is one raspberry and you gave it to your friend.

The true measure of a gift is what you gave up to give it. One raspberry isn't much unless it's all you have! Then it's not next to nothing; it's everything. The same is true of two billion dollars or two mites. Big dreams often start with small acts of kindness. It's powerful when we're on the receiving end, but it's even more wonderful when we're on the giving end.

God

Leviticus 7:11-15, p.107

Leviticus 7:11–15 NLT

11 “These are the instructions regarding the different kinds of peace offerings that may be presented to the Lord. 12 If you present your peace offering as an expression of thanksgiving, the usual animal sacrifice must be accompanied by various kinds of bread made without yeast—thin cakes mixed with olive oil, wafers spread with oil, and cakes made of choice flour mixed with olive oil. 13 This peace offering of thanksgiving must also be accompanied by loaves of bread made with yeast. 14 One of each kind of bread must be presented as a gift to the Lord. It will then belong to the priest who splatters the blood of the peace offering against the altar. 15 The meat of the peace offering of thanksgiving must be eaten on the same day it is offered. None of it may be saved for the next morning.

Gratitude is Celebrating God

Psalm 66:13–16 NLT

Now I come to your Temple with burnt offerings to fulfill the vows I made to you— yes, the sacred vows that I made when I was in deep trouble. That is why I am sacrificing burnt offerings to you— the best of my rams as a pleasing aroma, and a sacrifice of bulls and male goats. Interlude Come and listen, all you who fear God, and I will tell you what he did for me.

Our passage describes the rules the Israelites were to follow around thanksgiving offerings. These sacrificial offerings were to be made in recognition of the fact that the Lord had provided for the needs of the one giving the offering. It was presented to God out of gratitude for his goodness, probably as a joyful response to the worshipper’s prayer. And these rules provide a serious, correct practice of costly sacrifice and verbal testimony to God’s goodness to the one making the offering. The Hebrew word for thanksgiving comes from the Hebrew word to confess or to declare. They are closely linked.

Celebrating God Leads to Generosity

Leviticus 7:15 NLT

The meat of the peace offering of thanksgiving must be eaten on the same day it is offered. None of it may be saved for the next morning.

So these are very special rules. Unlike a freewill offering a thanksgiving offering was to be eaten on the same day as it was offered. Think about that for a moment. First of all, we are talking about a whole animal here. As Psalm 66 suggests, that could be a ram, a bull or goat. Whichever one of those it is, that’s a whole lot of meat! We’re not talking about your Sunday joint here, however many you had around the table today! A whole animal. And a whole animal along with thick loaves of bread. This is more food than the worshipper could eat in one day. So because of the rules there’s only one thing they could do: be generous. God set up an opportunity for a worshipper, someone making an offering to him in response to his generosity, to generously share his blessings and to testify to his goodness. These thanksgiving offerings were a joyful, communal meal, involving the worshipper, their family, the priests, the Levites and even the poor of the village. God’s generosity led to the worshipper’s gratitude which created generosity in his heart, and which no doubt inspired gratitude and generosity in the hearts of those that received his generosity.

You

Practice Gratitude and Generosity to be Contented

I asked God for all things, that I might enjoy life. God gave life, that I might enjoy all things. (Anon.)

We are no longer bound by these rules. Christ has fulfilled them all in his sacrifice for us. It is therefore even more important that we remember to practice gratitude in order to live the contented life. For this, we depend on Christ himself. He is the one who gives us the ability to express our joy in worship:

How do we remember all that God gives us? How do we practice gratitude?

Shawn Achor, a psychologist who teaches at Harvard, suggests that we can train our brains to become more grateful by setting aside just five minutes a day for practicing gratitude. He cites a one-week study in which people were asked to take five minutes a day, at the same time every day, to write down three things they were thankful for. They didn’t have to be big things, but they had to be concrete and specific, such as, “I’m thankful for the delicious Thai take-out dinner I had last night.” Or, “I’m thankful that my daughter gave me a hug.” Or, “I’m thankful that my boss complimented my work.” The participants simply expressed thanks for three specific things at the same time every day.

At the end of one month, the researchers followed up and found that those who practiced gratitude—including those who stopped the exercise after one week—were happier and less depressed. Remarkably, after three months, the participants who had been part of the one-week experiment were still more joyful and content. Incredibly, after the six-month mark, they were still happier, less anxious, and less depressed. The researchers hypothesised that the simple practice of writing down three thanksgivings a day over the course of a week primed the participants’ minds to search for the good in their lives.

If we were to practice gratitude in this way - writing down three things for which we are grateful to God for every day - then our practiced response will be generosity to others. It will become a habit that increases little by little.

God’s Response to our Generosity

2 Corinthians 9:8 The Living Bible

God is able to make it up to you by giving you everything you need and more so that there will not only be enough for your own needs but plenty left over to give joyfully to others.

And the amazing thing about practising gratitude and generosity? God’s promise is that he will give us everything we need and plenty more left over so we’ll have enough to share with those around us. Isn’t that amazing? If we’re willing to be a blessing, then he will pour out his blessings on us and on others through us. Now that sounds like the perfect recipe for The Contented Life.

Next Steps

SB 395 - Thank you, Lord, for all your goodness

Thank you, Lord, for all your goodness: Through the years of yesterday; Thank you, too, for present mercies And your blessing on my way. Thank you for each revelation, And for what you choose to hide; Thank you, Lord, for grace sustaining As I in your love abide. 2 Thank you, Lord, for sunlit pathways, Thank you, too, for byways rough; Thank you for the fruitful summers Also for the winters tough. Thank you, Lord, for fragrant flowers Growing right amid the weeds; Thank you for the peace you give me Even when my spirit bleeds. 3 Thank you, Lord, for wayside roses, Even for the thorns beside; Thank you for the prayers you granted And for those that you denied; Thank you, Lord, for precious comfort In my hours of grief and pain; Thank you for your precious promise Life eternal I shall gain. August Ludvig Storm (1862-1914), trs Flora Larsson (1904-2000) © The General of The Salvation Army. Used By Permission. CCL Licence No. 30158 Copied from The Song Book of The Salvation Army Song Number 395