Cheerful Giver

I remember watching a movie about the life of Abraham shortly after I became a Christian.  I seem to recall a scene in the movie where Abraham teaches his young son, Isaac, that we must be willing to give our very best to God.  He instructs his son to go out into their flock and find his favorite lamb.  The two then go together and sacrifice the lamb.  The scene (of course) is not one that is recorded in scripture, but is instead a little bit of creative licensing for the purpose of foreshadowing Abraham's offering of his own son Isaac on the alter (Genesis 22).

I was reminded of this today while reading and realized how short I fall, not only of God's standards, but also of the example that Godly men like Abraham have set for me...  Let me explain.

This week we just purchased a new car, well, a car new to us.  We bought a 2004 Yukon. So far, we are very happy with it.  However, the process to buy the vehicle was a long one during which we had to make several trips around the state to look a vehicles that we thought might be good enough, while still being cheap enough.  It was a long and tiring process that was often filled with conversations that went something like this:

     Me- "What would you buy if we could just go and pick out any car we wanted?"

     Jennifer- "I don't know, but it would be brand new!"

     Me- "It would be nice to drive off the lot with a car that has less than 50 miles on it!"

     Jennifer- "And to get the exact color we want."

Anyway, you get the idea...

Add to this our family members talking about their "wonderful" car buying experiences, and our colleagues driving vehicles that cost over $50K, and our friends taking vacations in the Caribbean, and etc, etc. and eventually we ask ourselves, why can't we do that? We should have enough money to do that. How can they afford to do that? Ultimately we end up realizing that we are trying to manage our money based on God's principles, and these other people are managing their money based on the American dream...  It left me feeling less than "cheerful" when we gave our tithe check this week.

This morning, as I sleepily did my devotionals, it occurred to me that I have a similar (i.e. grumbling) attitude when it comes to my time. I regularly complain that I don't have enough time to do the things I want to do, or some of the things I need to do. The reason why, I "give" a portion of each day to God by doing a morning devotion, and I give a portion of each week by trying (in a very pathetic sort of way) to keep the Sabbath. 

Bottom line is this - By His Spirit, God has shown me that time and money are things that are more important to me than I realized. I believe that God is pleased that I have not withheld these things from Him. However, I think that He is saddened that I have chosen to give these with a grumbling spirit.

Lord, please forgive my reluctant and grumbling attitude. You have blessed me in wonderful ways; help me to be a good steward with those blessings, and to do so cheerfully.  Your generosity and loving -kindness should be more than enough to keep me cheerful.  When I feel jealous that the world does not give back to you in the same measure that you have called me to give, let that be a reminder of all that You have given me, and the blessings that come from obedience.