Starting The Receiving Process

WISDOM NUGGET: Giving is better than receiving because giving starts the receiving process.

                                                                                                                        - Jim Rohn

 

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A lot of people want to be on the receiving side. And it is no sin or crime at all.

 

Everyone loves to receive gifts. However, we must recognise the infallible, life-governing, principles. One example of those principles is that of sowing and reaping (seed time and harvest shall not cease).

 

 As long as there is seed in the ground a harvest awaits: it is a universal law of nature. Also when it comes to receiving, the only guarantee that one will receive is that one has given.  

Once, a blind beggar sat beside a road, fingering the rice in his little bowl. The road stretched into nowhere both ways. The scarce travellers occasionally gave him a little rice. One day he heard the thunder of a chariot in the distance. It was the grand entourage of the maharajah. Never had they passed his way before. Surely the great one would stop and give him baskets of rice. Indeed, the golden chariot of the maharajah stopped before the poor beggar. The great one stepped down and the beggar fell before him. Then the sky seemed to fall in. "Give me your rice," said the great one. A fearful, hateful, scowl masked the face of the beggar. He reached into his bowl and thrust one grain of rice toward the maharajah. "Is that all?" said the great one. The beggar spat on the ground, cursed, and threw him one more grain of rice. The great one turned, entered his chariot, and was gone. The beggar—angry, empty, and crushed—fingered the remaining rice he had hoarded in his bowl. He felt something hard, different from the rice. He pulled it out. It was one grain of gold. He poured out his rice, caring nothing for it now. He found one other grain of gold. Had he trusted the great one, he could have had a grain of gold for every grain of rice.

 You could receive by begging or asking a favour. But the best way to receive is to give.

Giving Opens Hearts

WISDOM NUGGET: Giving a gift can open doors; it gives access to important people!

 

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“People don’t want to know how much you know, until they know how much you care,”

                                                                                                   - John C. Maxwell

 

 One of the most effective ways of winning people over is through giving. Giving has the power to melt hearts, encourage the embittered and battered. Giving can encourage people who wouldn't even be patient enough to hear a sermon.

A man bought a field next to a farmer who had been engaged in a long-standing dispute with the former owner about the exact boundary line between this field and his own property. When the new owner saw the farmer near the fence one day, he greeted him with the words, "I'm your new neighbour; and I would like to talk to you about the boundary line between our properties." The farmer assumed a belligerent attitude and said, "What about it?" "How much of this field do you claim as belonging to you?" asked the new owner. "I claim that your fence is a good two feet over on my property," replied the farmer. "Well, then, I want you to reset the fence four feet back on my side," replied the new owner. This completely took the fight out of the farmer and was the beginning of a new spirit of concession on his part also. A week letter both men had become such good friends and the Christian began to share his philosophies with his new neighbour.

Let your giving go before you. It has the ability of opening doors and making hearts receptive. Carson McCullers said “The closest thing to being cared for is to care for someone else.” Giving is the most powerful expression of care.

Lovers Only

 

WISDOM NUGGET: "Perhaps the greatest gift is a portion of thyself."

                                                                                          - Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Rule No. 5 of giving is the rule of love. Have you noticed that giving flows freely & lavishly when it has to do with someone you love? That is the natural order. Amy Carmichael once said “You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving.” In other words, not every giver is a lover, but every true lover is a helpless giver. What naturally followed was that “He gave…”

The story is told of the husband of Mary Kay Ash, who used to be a man heavily addicted to smoking. All efforts by Mary Kay to help her husband stop smoking proved futile. That notwithstanding, he was a man that loved his family. Years had come and gone, but the man was still at it. Then one day, he saw a program on TV, where the devastating effects of second hand smoking was being discussed. Then it dawned on him, the dangers he had been exposing his family to, especially his wife, as they inhaled the smoke of tobacco, to which they were exposed when he smoked at home. There and then, the long standing appetite for smoking died a natural death. His love for his family infused him with seemingly invincible powers to give up his smoking habit and strangulated his appetite for tobacco. It must have cost him a lot to deal with, but for the love he had for his family, it was not a struggle. He gave it up freely. His family entered into another level of bliss and joy that perhaps they had never known.

You can’t love without giving. The reason why many struggle with giving is because of their lack of love. In fact, the extent to which you are not giving is the extent to which you are love deficient. This is how Ralph Waldo Emerson puts it, "Perhaps the greatest gift is a portion of thyself."

 

The Fourth Rule Of Giving

Wisdom Nugget: "He who observes the wind and waits for all conditions to be favourable will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap."

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"The smallest gift is greater that the greatest intention."

A church member was expecting $300,000 in a will from a family member. The member said to the pastor, "If I get the $300,000 I will give one-third to the church." The pastor said, "How will you give one-third of this amount when you can't give one-tenth of what you now earn?"

It's not what we would do if we had much money—it's what we are doing with what we have now!

The fourth Rule of Giving is "Eliminate all excuses !" Our nugget below captures it succinctly:
"He that observes the wind shall not sow; and he that regards the clouds shall not reap.

When it comes to doing the right thing, have you noticed how your mind is bombarded with a million and one excuses why you shouldn't? You hear things like: have you paid your bills? what if have an emergency & may need the money? What if you loose your job etc ? Truth is the weather will never be perfect for you to do what is right. Excuses are tools of the incompetent, monuments of nothingness and those who use them are not wise.

A minister was talking to a man who professed conversion. "Have you united with a church?" he asked him. "No, the dying thief never united with a church and he went to heaven," was the answer. "Have you ever sat at the Lord's table?" "No, the dying thief never did and he was accepted." "Have you been baptized?" "No, the dying thief was never baptized and he went to heaven." "Have you given to missions?" "No, the dying thief did not, and he was not judged for it." "Well, my friend, the difference between you two seems to be that he was a dying thief and you are a living thief."

Giving Is Loving

PHOTOPIN: Giving

“It's not how much we give but how much love we put into giving.”
                                                                                                 ―     Mother Teresa

 

A man prayed fervently every morning, during his family’s worship, for the poor in the community, but he was never known to give anything to the poor. One morning at the conclusion of family worship, after the usual prayer had been offered for the poor and destitute, his little son said, "Father, I wish I had your corncrib." "Why, my son?" asked the father. "Why, because then I would answer your prayers for the poor myself."

It'd be nice to imitate the barber who one week noticed that there was a good increase in his business. And discovered that his competitor, another barber in the village, was ill. When the week ended, he took all that he had made above his average earnings and carried it to his competitor with love and sympathy.

True love is showing our neighbours support and kindness. We cannot claim to love God if we do otherwise.

Giving Ia Gift.

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Wisdom Nuggets: Gentleness, self-sacrifice and generosity are the exclusive possession of no one race or religion.

                                                                                                                      - Mahatma Gandhi

 

 

Wayne Dyer once said "When I chased after money, I never had enough. When I got my life on purpose and focused on giving of myself and everything that arrived into my life, then I was prosperous." And Elbert Hubbard put it thus: "Love grows by giving. The love we give away is the only love we keep. The only way to retain love is to give it away."

A pig was lamenting his lack of popularity. He complained to a cow that people were always talking about the cow's gentleness and kind eyes. He admitted that cows give milk and cream, but maintained that pigs give more. He asserted that pigs give bacon and ham and bristles, and that people even pickle their feet. He demanded the reason for such lack of appreciation. The cow thought for a while and then said, "Maybe it's because I give while I'm still living."

 

WHOSE CALF IS DEAD?

WISDOM NUGGETS: "We should give as we would receive, cheerfully, quickly, and without hesitation; for there is no grace in a benefit that sticks to the fingers."

                                                                                                           - Seneca

Simple Gift
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 Whenever there is an opportunity to give, it has everything to do with us, we are the chief beneficiaries of our giving. Isn't it interesting then how people withhold from giving?

 

A preacher once told a story that perfectly illustrates this point.

 

One day a farmer went happily and with great joy in his heart to report to his wife and family that their best cow had given birth to twin calves, one red and one white. And he said, “You know I have suddenly had a feeling that we must dedicate one of these calves to the Lord. We will bring them up together, and when the time comes we will sell one and keep the proceeds, and we will sell the other and give the proceeds to the Lord’s work.” His wife asked him which he was going to dedicate to the Lord. “There is no need to bother about that now,” he replied, “we will treat them both in the same way, and when the time comes we will do as I have said.” And off he went. In a few months the man entered his kitchen looking very miserable and unhappy. When his wife asked him what was troubling him, he answered, “I have bad news to give you. The Lord’s calf is dead.” “But,” she said, “You had not decided which was to be the Lord’s calf.” “Oh yes,” he said; “I had always decided it was to be the white one, and it is the white one that has died. The Lord’s calf is dead.”

 

We may laugh at that story, but we may simply be laughing at ourselves. How many times has the Lord's calf died in your possession? When money becomes difficult, the first thing we economize or eliminate is our contribution to charity.

 

As Audrey once said, "You will discover that you have two hands. One is for helping yourself and the other is for helping others."

 

“What is it a man has”, Jesus asked, “that he did not receive?” Why then do men struggle with letting go of just a portion of all that they have been blessed with?

 

Remember Seneca's words: "We should give as we would receive, cheerfully, quickly, and without hesitation; for there is no grace in a benefit that sticks to the fingers."