“God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:6-11). I love this phrase from Corinthians, not just
in its meaning for alms and good works. God
doesn’t just mean that we smile when we write out a check or grin when we drop
off clothes at Goodwill (thought I think that’s a good idea too.) When I reflect on what “God loves a cheerful
giver” means, it reminds me of finding God in all things, in our day-to-day
lives—not only when we’re in church or praying or performing service. I want to be a cheerful giver among my
co-workers, my neighbors, the woman at the checkout line at the grocery store.
I can give
of my time and my smile. I can be patient
and kind, even when I don’t feel overly patient or kind. I can take a deep breath before becoming
annoyed. It’s those seemingly small
times in life, when we give of ourselves that I believe we’re truly becoming a
cheerful giver. It’s when we truly pay
attention to our family members, instead of just nodding because we’ve heard
that story before. We can be cheerful
givers when we put away or turn off the TV or the cell phone and pay attention
to those around us.
In Matthew’s
gospel (Matthew 6:1-18), Jesus speaks about some ways to pray that aren’t
really prayer, in the traditional sense.
For myself, I believe that the traditional description is the best:
prayer is raising your mind and your heart to God.
I think that
as far as most of our prayer is concerned, we act as babies do; we signal our
dependence with a wail for milk or, as we grow older, with a succession of
"gimme" demands that don't always have a "please" or a
"thank you" attached to them. We
spend much of our time asking God for things we think that we need, even good
things that He wishes to give us, and pitifully little time in thanking Him, in
asking what we can do for Him, in asking that He enlighten us about Himself and
His desires, or even simply surrendering ourselves to Him in complete gratitude
and trust. We’re very much aware of what
we want and where we get it from, but we think only of the getting and not of
the Giver.
I think that
the best prayer is more about our lifting our whole minds and hearts to God,
directing our entire attention and all our faculties to Him, and simply being
present to an Almighty Father who already knows what we need. More than only asking, such prayer is opening
ourselves to let Him reveal His Self to us and to receive whatever it is that
He wants us to know and to have. Such
prayer leaves God free to be God.
God also
reveals us to ourselves, letting us see who we are and understand our
relationship to him, showing us how we are loved and where we need to grow. There’s an incredible number of ways in which
He can do this, as each of us is individual and each day we respond to Him
differently and grow towards Him in a new way. But a great deal of such prayer is the Holy
Spirit addressing us on our deepest levels, speaking in ways far beyond our
words or understanding and in ways that will bear visible fruit in us only
later, at the proper moment.
We can and
should respond to Christ's call by simply going to a place of silence and
gently opening our hearts to the One who loves us more than we do ourselves.
The words of
Matthew’s gospel also serve as a reminder that what we do in service, in
prayer, or in fasting should come so naturally to us that it’s a seamless part
of our lives. The giving and the praying aren’t exceptions but the rule. I pray that God helps me become a cheerful giver.
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