Cheerfully

Once you recognize that everything belongs to God, it gets easier to practice the three steps with every paycheck that comes in. Release. Receive. Redistribute. Releasing it back to God gets easier because you remember that God entrusted it into your care to begin with. Receiving it again gets easier, because you remember that it was given to you from God the first time. Redistributing it gets easier because you remember that God gave it to you to use for God's purposes.

Over time, it starts to affect more than just your paychecks. You purchase a car. Release. Receive. Redistribute. Suddenly, the car is being used to pick up people who can't get to church services on their own. You purchase a home. Release. Receive. Redistribute. Suddenly your home is being used for small group bible studies, showing hospitality to your neighbors, and welcoming missionaries who are in town to ask for prayers and financial support. Everything you have becomes God's. Then you start to realize it didn't become God's. It was already God's. You just see it now.

Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. (2 Corinthians 9:7 NIV)
Using the resources God entrusted into your care for God's purposes gets easier and easier. You even start to have fun with it all. After all, God loves a cheerful giver. Do you know what the Greek word for cheerful is in this sentence? The New American Standard Exhaustive Concordance tells us: ἱλαρός; hilaros; cheerful. The Greek word, hilaros, is where we get the English word hilarious. God loves it when we enjoy giving so much that we roll on the floor laughing. (We used to have "ROFL" on the floor by our donation box at Life Bridge just to remind us.) God loves a cheerful giver.

How about you? Is it getting easier for you to release, receive, and redistribute what God gives you for God's purposes? Have you gotten to the point where you enjoy it? Do you give cheerfully, rolling on the floor laughing?