We naturally tend to measure happiness with how much we have received. God measures happiness far differently.
There are spiritual laws that regulate life—invisible laws that, understood and obeyed, lead to abundant living. They represent the true values we ought to strive to attain in our short lives.
God is a gracious and generous giver. It is His nature to give (John 3:16; Romans 5:8-10). His law is concerned with giving in our relationships: giving to God and giving to our fellow man—family, schoolmates, fellow employees and so forth. The two great commandments require us to love God and His Family with all our heart and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves (Matthew 22:37-40).
It is human nature to covet, to lust, to take for self. We naturally drift in this direction if we don’t resist it. How many teenagers live in a dark cave of selfishness? How many adults shrivel up inside because they don’t get their minds off themselves and on to others? The Oxford Dictionary defines selfishness as “lacking consideration for other people; concerned chiefly with one’s own personal profit or pleasure.”
Looking to your own needs is not wrong, but it is wrong to look only to your own needs. The Apostle Paul tells us that God’s love “seeketh not her own” (1 Corinthians 13:5). He instructs, “Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others” (Philippians 2:4).
Jesus Christ came as a servant (verse 7). His mindset was to help other people, to serve their genuine needs. When we do that, Christ said, we will be happy (John 13:13-14, 17).
This is the secret to true lasting happiness, success and growth!
The Principle
God has put in motion a fundamental law of growth. In 2 Corinthians 9:6, Paul elaborates poetically on this law. “… He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.”
If you have just one dollar left and cheerfully give it to God, He will bless you beyond your wildest expectations. God loves a cheerful giver! (verse 7). There is a lot of might in such a trifling mite.
In Luke 21:2, Christ witnessed a widow give her last two copper coins to God. “For all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God: but she of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had” (verse 4). This was a genuine sacrifice.
Giving like this goes against the natural grain of thinking. Naturally, we would want to cling to those two copper pieces with our life! You see how different it is to think this way? Giving like this comes from the mind of Christ.
There is a hidden law here: The greater the genuine sacrifice for God, the more growth God gives.
Christ explained that the Kingdom of God would begin as a mustard seed that grows into a great tree (Matthew 13:31-32). God started the Kingdom of God with the “seed” sacrifice of His beloved Son. The size and scope of the Kingdom of God will expand forever—on the throne of David! (Isaiah 9:6-7). You see, genuine outgoing, loving sacrifice is a powerful seed. It is a core law or principle of growth.
Sacrifice in giving is a fundamental law of growth. It is like the atom of a nuclear bomb. Once split, it leads to a fantastic explosion—in this case, a very positive explosion of growth rather than a destructive explosion!
“[F]reely ye have received,” Christ said, “freely give” (Matthew 10:8). Herbert W. Armstrong and members of the Worldwide Church of God spent a lifetime freely giving to the world, influencing the lives of millions of people, and the Church grew as a result. For the first 35 years, the Church grew at an average rate of 30 percent per year. Mr. Armstrong and his wife and family made tremendous sacrifices for God’s Work, and they were not alone. Today, Pastor General Gerald Flurry and members of the Philadelphia Church of God follow that godly example, and countless lives are being influenced. Even many co-workers and donors are sacrificing and having a positive impact on God’s Work.
God wants tremendous growth—and sacrificing in our giving is a means of getting those results. Christ said in Luke 6:38: “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.”
Rich Toward God
It is a natural pull to hoard, to store things up for ourselves, to drift into giving less. But it is a law of God that if we give cheerfully, He will ensure we are blessed beyond measure!2 Corinthians 9:8 in the Weymouth adds, “And God is able to bestow every blessing on you in abundance, so that richly enjoying all sufficiency at all times, you may have ample means for all good works.” That is a stunning law of giving: If we give and sacrifice from the heart, God will make sure there will always be more to give!
Verse 10 continues, “And God who continually supplies seed for the sower and bread for eating, will supply you with seed and multiply it, and will cause your almsgiving to yield a plentiful harvest” (Weymouth). God repeats Himself here for emphasis.
What enthralling promises! While giving applies to every aspect of our lives, think about our financial giving to God’s Work. It would be easy to get selfish in the economic climate we are in and think to draw back in our offerings—to give less, to hoard a little more for our needs and wants. Yet think about these laws of giving.
“Take heed,” Christ said, “and beware covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth” (Luke 12:15). Grasping, straining, wanting more simply does not pay. It leads to moral squalor, emptiness and insatiable materialism.
Malachi 3:10-11 show that when we pay God our tithes, we make Him our financial partner. He promises to pour out a blessing and rebuke the effects of the devourer like inflation, wear and tear on clothing and other personal belongings. Thousands can attest to these miracles! The key is to put God and His Work first in all that we do. Then we will be rich toward God (Luke 12:16-21). Paul said, “I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase” (1 Corinthians 3:6).
An Exalted Attitude
“I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). Yes, with the right mindset, there is a blessing in receiving. In God’s Church we receive much education, for example—a real blessing! But Christ said it is more blessed to give.
In Philippians 2, Paul lamented that he only had two service-minded men to help him. “For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ’s” (verse 21). There may have been hundreds of Church members around, but only two who truly served! They did everything they could to fill the needs they saw around them. Timothy was prepared to sacrifice his time and energy to help God’s people. Epaphroditus almost died serving God’s people (verse 27). This is an exalted, truly noble attitude.
Yet Christians who strive to live like this are rare. It can become too easy to be in God’s Church and not give back. Such thinking comes naturally. Yet God wants us to elevate our thinking to His level. He desires sacrifices from the heart.
When is the last time you went out of your way to help someone or to be of extra value and use to God and God’s Work? Do you visit the sick? Do you telephone the widows? Do you use hospitality to serve God’s Family? Do you put extra effort into encouraging others? These are just a few measurements that can help tell us if we are truly seeking and living the way of the Kingdom of God.
“[W]hat are you doing for others? … Do you have any loved ones going hungry for a word of encouragement, a note or visit which says you care about them?” (Good News, March 1967). We are learning about God’s way of outgoing love and concern for others—are we practicing it? This
“is an absolute requirement for any who expect to enter His Kingdom. …
“Yet even some who are baptized, have God’s Spirit, know the plan of God and hope to enter into His Kingdom lack this outgoing love! They just never think about others. Their fruitless lives make it obvious that they do not actively care for others. They intend to do right. They often think to do good works, yet seldom, if ever, get around to actually doing them. They try to be nice. They often say and do pleasant things. They try to be fair. Yet no one is benefited. No one’s life is being changed. No one’s hope is lifted up. No happiness is radiated to others. No joy is spread. Instead, they are forced to rationalize, defend themselves, argue or retreat. This kind of behavior falls far short of truly outgoing love” (ibid).
Those are strong words. Yet in John 13:35 Christ said, “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”
“God is love and He acts habitually and consistently in outgoing love. That is what we are learning to do through His Holy Spirit. We are developing the character of habitually and consistently acting in outgoing love and concern for others—all others!” (ibid).
How thankful are you to be in God’s Church? To be receiving a God Family education? To contribute to God’s Work? It truly is a privilege! Many subscribers, donors and co-workers to God’s Work are also thinking about God and seeking baptism to serve God’s Work even more. Prayerfully measure your gratitude, and be sure to do everything you can to give back.
See the Living God
In Elijah’s day, a blistering drought overtook the land. God told Elijah to go to a certain city where a widow would care for him (1 Kings 17:9). When Elijah arrived, he found the widow stooping to gather sticks. He asked her for some water and food.
Her response is heart-rending: “And she said, As the Lord thy God liveth, I have not a cake but an handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse: and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die” (verse 12). This answer suggests that her thinking had become negative, lacking the vitality of fertile faith.
There was another spiritual principle at work here: The more we sacrifice for God by faith, the more we get to know God’s true nature—the more we see the God who lives!
God wanted to teach this widow a lesson we all need to learn. He used Elijah to reveal His love to her. But for her eyes to open to this reality, it had to start with faith and obedience.
“And Elijah said unto her, Fear not; go and do as thou hast said; but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son. For thus saith the Lord God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, unto the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the Earth” (verses 13-14). God told the widow to put the physical life of God’s prophet above her own life and that of her son!
God was testing this woman’s love for His Work. She barely had enough food for herself and her son, yet God told her to make this sacrifice. If she decided to save her life, she would lose it; but if she decided to lose her life for the Work’s sake, she would gain it! God would then reveal Himself to her through a physical miracle and go on to bless her every physical need.
How easy it is to fall into how the world thinks: Get as much as you can for yourself! And during hard times, batten down the hatches! Become even more inward-looking.
If the widow would put God first, her “seed” and her bread would multiply. This is the growth principle. But this first required believing what God’s prophet said. It required faith!
Sacrifice to Grow
In Luke 17, Christ gave a fascinating parable about the relationship between faith and sacrificing for God and His Work. The disciples wanted to grow in faith. But Christ, rather than giving them a bullet-point list of things they could do—pray, Bible study, fellowship and fast—told them about a servant who served the needs of his master. He gave them the ultimate key to ever growing faith.
In the parable, the servant did what was required of him. He served his master’s meal and attended to his needs. Having done all that was expected of him as an employee, Christ asked: Should this man be thanked? He answered: I think not.
Christ concluded, “So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do” (verse 10).
This parable is best explained by Matthew 5:41: “And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.” This is a whole sacrifice to God. This is how we grow in faith. We must strive to give our lives for God’s Work.
“God gives us a tremendous amount of knowledge. But what good is it if we don’t apply it in offensive warfare?” Mr. Flurry writes. “That is how we truly learn—through application. We must go on the offensive in God’s Work in every possible way with the knowledge we receive. That means serving God’s people, helping in the congregations, supporting the Work. Anything that gets in the way of that, we must try to destroy—particularly our carnal nature” (How to Be an Overcomer).
Satan wants us to fight on his chosen ground. God says, Go on the offensive. Fight by giving, serving, sacrificing. When we get out and fill needs, we will see our faults—what holds us back from being a more effective servant. If we love God and His Work, we are then driven to overcome them to glorify God.
Back in Philippians 2, Paul wrote, “Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all” (verse 17). Paul was willing to give the ultimate sacrifice for God’s Work. After decades of sacrifice and service, hazarding his life time and again, Paul said he was ready to be martyred for God (2 Timothy 4:6-8). His resplendent crown awaits him at the resurrection.
It is our duty to pay our tithes, to attend services, to attend God’s holy days—so we may be fitted for greater service in the Kingdom of God. That is our reasonable service (Romans 12:1). And for real growth, sacrifice in your giving. The more sacrifice there is in our giving, the more explosive the result. Ask God for opportunities to sacrifice and give to His Work and Family, and watch as God answers those prayers! That is the attitude He is looking for!
Christ said, “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it” (Mark 8:35). What an attitude! Christ gave His life for you—now you must give your life for Christ and God’s Work!