«Freely you have received, freely give»
(Matthew 10:8).
ACCORDING TO ROBERT EMMONS, there are two types of gratitude. One, with a small g that basically consists of how grateful we feel when we receive blessings. The other, with a capital G, relates to the feeling of well-being we experience when we contribute to other people’s happiness.
What kind of gratitude do you experience most often: the one that is the product of what you give or the one that comes from what you receive? By the way, there is nothing wrong with receiving blessings and being thankful for them. The point is that, as the Lord Jesus Himself said, «It is more blessed to give than to receive» (Acts 20:35).
Give what? Give how much? Today’s verse gives us the answer: «Freely you have received, freely give» (Matthew 10:8). Or, as the J.B. Phillips modern translation says, «Give, as you have received, without any charge whatever.»
A story that Cheri Horning Corder told illustrates the point well. Cheri said that her father always carried a hundred-dollar bill with him «just in case.» We’re talking about the 50s when that was a lot of money. One day, she and her father came across a woman who, at first glance, reflected her great need of help. A short conversation served to show that her husband had no job, and the children had no food.
«If we had a hundred dollars,» she said, «my husband could go to the city and find work.”
«Here’s the hundred dollars,» Cheri’s father told her, as he held out the bill.
The story says that the woman’s husband got a job and was eventually able to set up a thriving business.
On another occasion, Cheri said, the hundred dollars were received by a man looking for work, but who needed money to fill his vehicle’s gas tank, He got the job and within a few weeks, returned to pay back the money he had received.
«Do you know how you can pay me back?» Cheri’s father replied. «Help someone in need with that money”.
There it is! «Give as we have received.» Can we imagine all the good that would take place? Love as God has loved us; forgive as we have been forgiven; help the way others have helped us: in other words, gratitude with a capital G!
Prepare me today, dear Lord, to be a channel through which Your blessings flow to others.
#AdultsDevotional
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Taken from: Devotional Readings for Adults 2022
“GREAT IS OUR GOD!”
From: FERNANDO ZABALA
Collaborators: Xiomara Perdomo & Angelica Cuate
