Common Sense About People, Part Two

Bible Reading:  Galatians 6

Key Verse: Verse 10- "As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith."

Key Words: let us do good unto all men

Paul understood that the business of God is people: helping people, leading people, and restoring people. 

We also need to remember that we are in the people business.  

• Your business is not sales – your business is people.
• Your business is not mechanics -- your business is people.
• Your business is not the restaurant -- your business is people.
• Your business is not the law -- your business is people.
• Your business is not education -- your business is people.
• We are in the people business.

In the 1950s, marketing whiz Stanley Arnold was working at Young & Rubicam, where he was asked to come up with a marketing campaign for Remington Rand.  The company was among the most conservative in America.  Its chairman at the time was retired General Douglas MacArthur.  Intimidated at first by a company that was so much a part of America, Arnold also found in that phrase the first inspiration for a campaign.  After thinking about it, he went to the New York offices of Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner and Beane, and placed the ultimate odd-lot order.

“I want to purchase,” he told the broker, “one share of every single stock listed on the New York Stock Exchange.”  After a vice president tried to talk him out of it, the order was finally placed.  It came to more than $42,000 for one share in each of the 1098 companies listed on the Big Board at the time.  Arnold now took his diversified portfolio into a meeting of Remington Rand’s board of directors, where he argued passionately for a sweepstakes campaign with the top prize called A Share in America.  The conservative old gentlemen shifted around in their seats and discussed the idea for a while.  “But Mr. Arnold,” said one, “we are not in the securities business.”  Said another, “We are in the shaver business.”

“I agree that you are not in the securities business,” said Arnold, “but I think you also ought to realize that you are not in the shaver business either.  You are in the people business.”  The company bought the idea.

 

                                                                                                Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do:

✞Never forget: God’s business is always people.

Common Sense About the People, Part One

Bible Reading:  Acts 25:1-12

Key Verse: Verse 12- "Then Festus, when he had conferred with the council, answered, Hast thou appealed unto Caesar? unto Caesar shalt thou go."

Key Words: unto Caesar shalt thou go

The Jews were not content with Felix’s decision to leave Paul in prison (Acts 24:27).  They wanted Paul to be executed so when Festus (governor of the province) came into their area, they appealed their case to him.  He brought Paul before him and Paul appealed to Caesar.

Neither Felix nor Festus wanted anything to do with Paul.  They both knew he was innocent but both also knew that to let him go would displease the Jewish people.

I recently read an old fable that has been passed down for generations which tells about an elderly man who was traveling with a boy and a donkey. As they walked through a village, the man was leading the donkey and the boy was walking behind. The townspeople said the old man was a fool for not riding, so to please them he climbed up on the animal's back. When they came to the next village, the people said the old man was cruel to let the child walk while he enjoyed the ride. So, to please them, he got off and set the boy on the animal's back and continued on his way. In the third village, people accused the child of being lazy for making the old man walk, and the suggestion was made that they both ride. So the man climbed on and they set off again. In the fourth village, the townspeople were indignant at the cruelty to the donkey because he was made to carry two people. The frustrated man took their donkey and went back home.

The moral of the fable is when you try to please people, you end up accomplishing nothing.  So it was with Felix and Festus…they accomplished nothing.  This should never be our testimony!

                                                                                                    Dr.. Mike Rouse 

What to do:

✞Live to please the Lord and you’ll accomplish much.

Common Sense About the Facts

Bible Reading:  Acts 11:1-21

Key Verse: Verse 2 - "And when Peter was come up to Jerusalem, they that were of the circumcision contended with him,"

Key Words: contended with him

The Jews of Judea didn’t care for the fact that Peter had carried the Word of God to the Gentiles.  They had reached a decision based on what they had heard without allowing Peter the opportunity to give them the facts.

People have not changed, nor have churches.  We are still basing things on what we hear or think we hear and what we see or think we see without having all the facts.

In 2004 the top two commercials for the year ran during the Super Bowl.  The commercial that finished second had a man standing in line at a convenience store talking with a friend on his cell phone.  When he gets to the counter to pay for his items he says in great shock, “You’re being robbed?” talking to his friend.  The clerk looking down at the register thinks he is talking to him and proceeds to grab some pepper spray and spraying it in the man’s eyes, the clerk jumps over the counter and proceeds to beat the man with a baseball bat, and then shoots him with a taser gun.  He did all of this because of what he heard or thought he heard.  Wrong decision!!

The commercial that finished first had a man preparing a romantic meal for his wife.  He was in the kitchen cutting up tomatoes when he steps back and trips over his wife’s white cat.  Tomatoes go flying everywhere including leaving tomatoes and tomato stains on the cat.  The man picks the cat up to take it to the bathroom to clean it.  When his wife sees her husband with her tomato-stained cat in one hand and a knife in the other, she is furious and grabs the lamp and cracks her husband over the head…because of what she thought she saw.  Wrong decision!!

Moral: Don’t make decisions on what you think you hear or what you think you see…get the facts.

 

                                                                                                Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do:

✞John 7:24, “Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.”

Common Sense About Religion

Bible Reading:  James 1:16-27

Key Verse: Verse 27 - "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world."

Key Words: Pure religion

James says pure religion is clean and undefiled.  It is more than sitting through a church service.  It is a service for God that involves two things.  

First, we must visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction.  Now, we define “visit” a lot differently than God does.  The word “visit” carries the idea of going to those who are fatherless and a widow with the idea of helping to relieve them of their affliction.

Secondly, pure religion is keeping oneself unspotted (unstained) from the world.

The 19^th century Danish theologian Soren Kierkegaard identified two kinds of religion – Religion A and Religion B.  The first is “faith” in name only (II Timothy 3:5).  It’s the practice of attending church without genuine faith in the living Lord.

Religion B, on the other hand, is a life-transforming, destiny-changing experience.  It’s a definite commitment to the crucified and risen Savior, which establishes an ongoing personal relationship between a forgiven sinner and a gracious God.

This difference explains why for many years British author C. S. Lewis had such great difficulty in becoming a Christian.  Religion A had blinded him to Religion B.  According to his brother, Warren, his conversion was “no sudden plunge into new life, but rather a slow, steady convalescence from a deep-seated spiritual illness – an illness that had its origins in our childhood, in the dry husks of religious church-goers, but not doers of the Word of God.  People went to church out of duty but not out of desire.  There was no zeal or love for God, no service for God in their lives.”

C. S. Lewis had to overcome impure religion in order to be saved.  So I ask you: is your religion pure or impure?  You can tell by what you do and why you do it.

 

                                                                                                    Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do: 

✞Ask God to help your religion to be pure.

Common Sense About Salvation

Bible Reading:  II Corinthians 6:1-10

Key Verse: Verse 2 - "(For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.)"

Key Words: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation 

Salvation is a choice we make.  It is the most important choice one makes in their entire life.  It is the only “eternal” decision we make.  It comes with eternal blessing or eternal damage, but the choice is yours.

Longfellow could take a worthless sheet of paper, write a poem on it, and make it worth $6,000—that’s genius. 

Rockefeller could sign his name to a piece of paper and make it worth a million dollars—that’s capital.

Uncle Sam can take gold, stamp an eagle on it, and make it worth $20.00—that’s money.

A mechanic can take material that is worth only $5.00 and make it worth $50.00—that’s skill.

An artist can take a fifty-cent piece of canvas, paint a picture on it, and make it worth $1,000—that’s art.

God can take a worthless, sinful life, wash it in the blood of Christ, put His Spirit in it, and make it a blessing to humanity—that’s salvation.

 

                                                                                                    Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do:

✞Make the right choice: accept Jesus today as your Savior.

Common Sense About the Resurrection

Bible Reading: Acts 26:1-8

Key Verse: Verse 8 - "Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead?"

Key Words: that God should raise the dead

I often ask myself how it is even possible that men should doubt the resurrection from the dead.  It is far more incredible that there should be no resurrection.  The question of Paul to King Agrippa was, Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead?  If there is no resurrection, this life really has no meaning, it becomes hollow and empty.  Then God Who created us is a God of sheer sorrow...is this life all there is?  Just a few years of alternating between crying and laughing, mostly crying, and then death?  Then we must say with the Apostle Paul, If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.  But the resurrection should not be incredible to us, for all things around us remind us of the resurrection.  The buds on the trees, the flowers in the garden, the emerging of life after a long winter of inactivity, all point to the resurrection.

In an ancient tomb in France, buried under the debris, archaeologists found flower seeds which had been there for 2,000 years!  The explorers took the seeds and planted them and to no one’s amazement, they grew.  Egyptian garden peas which had been buried for 3,000 years were brought and planted, and you guessed it, within a few days they had germinated and broken ground–buried 3,000 years and then resurrected to life!  Why then should it be thought a thing incredible that God should raise the dead?  If God can cause a lump of clay to become alive at the creation of man, then again, I ask why can man not believe in the resurrection?  To me the most incredible thing would be for Jesus to live the life He lived and then remain dead.  Hallelujah!  Christ arose!

Up from the grave He arose,

With a mighty triumph o’er His foes;

He arose a Victor from the dark domain,

And He lives forever with His saints to reign:

He arose!  He arose!  Hallelujah, Christ arose!

 Amen and amen!  Because He lives, I too can and will live for eternity.  So can you by believing that Jesus is the Christ, your Savior.

                                                                                                Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do: 

✞Believe in the resurrection (Romans 10:9-10).

Common Sense About Grace

Bible Reading: II Corinthians 12:1-9

Key Verse: Verse 9 - "And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me."

Key Words: My grace is sufficient

Grace is defined as God’s unmerited favor.  My definition of grace is God giving us what we do not deserve; but as you can see from our Bible reading, grace is not giving us what we want but rather, God is giving us what we need.  That should be sufficient enough.

Respirators are machines that do the breathing for you.  If you are laid down on the hospital bed and there is a problem with your breathing, they put you on a respirator.  If you insist on breathing on your own, the respirator does you no good.  There’s only one thing you can do with the respirator – cooperate.  Now, you are involved because it’s your lungs going up and down.  It’s your mouth and nose that are taking in and expelling the oxygen.  The two of you are working together but the respirator is doing the work; you are just cooperating with it rather than resisting it.

Christ wants to express His life through you and be your respirator.  He does not want you being your own respirator because then you don’t need Him.  He doesn’t want to do it apart from you, so you must cooperate.  You must yield yourself to the person of Christ.  We have too many Christians today hyperventilating the spiritual life.

 

                                                                                                    Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do:  

✞Live by God’s grace for that really is sufficient enough.

Common Sense About Worry

Bible Reading: Matthew 6

Key Verse: Verse 25 - "Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?"

Key Words: Take no thought

You find the word thought five times in our text.  The word means anxiety or worry.

Someone said, "Most of today's worries are like puddles, tomorrow they will have evaporated."

Herbert Lockyear said, "Worry produces doubt in a three-fold direction: 1) God's love is doubted.  Worry implies that He cares little for His blood-washed children.  2)  God's wisdom is doubted.  Worry indicates that He is not able to plan for His own, that He does not know what is best for them who belong to Him.  3)  God's power is doubted.  Worry says His grace is not sufficient for our needs."

A French soldier in World War I carried with him this little receipt of worry:  "Of two things, one is certain.  Either you are at the front, or you are behind the lines.  If you are at the front, of two things one is certain.  Either you are exposed to danger, or you are in a safe place.  If you are exposed to danger, of two things one is certain.  Either you are wounded, or you are not wounded.  If you are wounded, of two things one is certain.  Either you recover, or you die.  If you recover, there is no need to worry.  If you die, you can't worry.  SO WHY WORRY?

 Good advice!

                                                                                             Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do:

✞Don't worry about tomorrow.  Remember, God is already there.

Common Sense About God and Creation

Bible Reading: Genesis 1

Key Verse: Verse 1 - "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”

Key Words: In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth

Since the atheist believes that God doesn’t exist, he has to justify through some means how man came to be.  His remarkable answer is evolution.  Man evolved into being.  But if evolution is a process of progression, then why is everything digressing?

It is said that Sir Isaac Newton had a perfectly scaled down replica of the then known solar system built for his studies.  A large golden ball represented the sun at the center, and the then known planets revolved around it through a series of cogs, belts, and rods.  It was said to have been an incredible machine.  One day while Newton was studying his model, an atheist friend stopped by for a visit.

The man marveled at the machine and asked, “Who made this exquisite thing?” 

 

Without looking up and without hesitation, Newton replied, “Nobody.”

“Nobody?” his friend asked. 

“That’s right,” said Newton.  “All of these balls, cogs, belts, and gears just happened to come together, and wonder of wonders, by chance they began revolving in their orbits with perfect timing.”  

His friend replied, “That’s not possible.”  

Newton said, “I know.”  

Then his friend, with a look of embarrassment, said, “I got it, Isaac.”

Oh, that others would get it as well!

 

                                                                                            Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do:  

✞Pray for those who fail to see.

✞Pray for our educational system which is blinding the minds of our youth.

✞Pray for our country to turn back to God.

✞Pray for the righteous to stand and do right.

Common Sense About Children

Bible Reading: Psalm 51

Key Verse: Verse 5 "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me." 

Key Words: in sin did my mother conceive me

Children, like all of us, come into the world with a sin nature.  The Psalmist David said, “In sin did my mother conceive me.”  In this Scripture we do not find a contrast between “innocent children” and “sinful adults.”  “Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him” (Proverbs 22:15).  Children are sinners as well as adults.

I have never seen a child who needed instruction on how to sin; it comes quite naturally.  I doubt that any of you sat your child down and taught them how to lie.  It just comes naturally.

In his book, Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning, Douglas Wilson writes, “I had to confront my five year-old daughter because of bitterness toward her brother.  It seems he had clobbered her earlier in the day; although he was disciplined for his action, she was unwilling to forgive.  So I quoted Matthew 6:14-15, ‘For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.’  Looking at me she said, ‘Who is this Matthew guy anyway?’”  Now her questioning of the Scriptures was not due to liberal theologians, but rather it was a result of her unforgiving spirit and her sin nature.

Our children are sinners and education alone is not the answer.  All you get when you educate a sinner is a “clever sinner.”  Knowledge by itself does not make people better, but rather makes them worse.  Education is not the answer to our problem, but Jesus is!!  (See Romans 3:20 and 5:20.)

I think all of you would agree with me that we want our children to receive a quality education; but if all we do is educate the mind and never attempt to regenerate the heart, we have failed.

 

                                                                                                        Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do: 

✞Don’t just educate the mind, work on the heart as well.

Common Sense About Getting Old

Bible Reading:  Ecclesiastes 12:1-7

Key Verse: Verse 7 - "Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it."

Key Words: Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was

Solomon reminds us of the importance of remembering God when we are young because old age is coming.  It is inevitable for us all.  I will – you will – we all will go through “old age.”  Eyesight will dim, hands will tremble, teeth begin to come loose, can’t sleep, little things become a bunch.  Then this old body will turn to dust, but praise God the spirit shall go to God (verse 7).

You know you’re getting older when…

• Most of your dreams are reruns
• You sit down in a rocking chair and you can’t get started
• Your mind makes commitments your body can’t keep
• The little gray-haired lady you help across the street is your wife
• Everything hurts, and what doesn’t hurt, doesn’t work
• You sink your teeth into a juicy steak and they stay there
• You watch a pretty girl go by, and your pacemaker makes the garage door open.

But it’s also good to remember that age has its benefits as well.

Abraham was 75 before he began his journey for God.  Moses was 80 when he led Israel out of Egypt.

 Don’t let your age hinder your service.  You can always have a ministry.  If nothing else, you can be a prayer warrior.

                                                                                                    Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do: 

✞Stay faithful until God calls you home.

Common sense About Life

Bible Reading: Ecclesiastes 2:12-17

Key Verse: Verse 17 – "Therefore I hated life; because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto me: for all is vanity and vexation of spirit."

Key Words: Therefore I hated life

Solomon is comparing the wise man with the foolish man.  He reaches the conclusion that wisdom is better than folly (verse 13).  He also concludes that the wise man uses both his head (brain) and his eyes.  He thinks and sees correctly.  But the fool’s thinking and sight are all wrong (verse 14).  But he reaches another conclusion in verse 16 that they both (the wise and the foolish) die and neither of them are remembered anymore.  As a result, he says, “I hated life” (verse 17).

Sometimes we become discouraged with life and ask ourselves, “Is this all there is to life?”

The mythical story is told of Tantalus, a king who had been found guilty of giving the secrets of the Greek gods to mortal men.  His punishment was to be placed in the river called Hades.  The water came up to his chin.  Hanging and dangling over his head were branches of voluptuous fruit.  The punishment, however, was this:  Every time Tantalus got thirsty and lowered his chin to drink water, the water would recede.  Every time Tantalus reached out to grab a piece of fruit, the branch would rise.  So the refreshment for his thirst was right there at chin level.  Food for his stomach was right above his head.  But the harder he tried, the less he got.  The punishment for his crime was to be in the vicinity of a blessing and not be able to get it.

The point is simply if you reach out for fulfillment in the things of this life, you'll discover that it's just out of your reach.  For nothing in life was designed to give you fulfillment except God; everything else is but a cheap imitation.  The things in life that many of us cling to most for meaning and purpose must continually be hoarded because they so quickly elude us.  The only lasting satisfaction in this life can be found in our relationship with God.

 So the answer to, “Does life have any new meaning?” is yes!  When you make life about Jesus and others rather than yourself, your life is not meaningless.

                                                                                           Dr. Mike Rouse             

What to do: 

✞Live your life, not so you will be remembered, but so Jesus will be remembered.

Common Sense About Marriage

Bible Reading: Ecclesiastes 9:7-12

Key Verse: Verses 9 - "Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity, which he hath given thee under the sun, all the days of thy vanity: for that is thy portion in this life, and in thy labour which thou takest under the sun."

Key Words: Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of the life

Isn’t it amazing how some men think that the woman they barely know will make a better partner than the wife they loved and lived with for years?  And by the way, the same can be said for the woman who throws her life away for a man she barely knows.  What a waste!  What a shame!

Men, there are a lot of beautiful women in this world, but you need to be content with the wife of your youth.

Think of all the lives that are destroyed by extra-marital affairs…the children, the grandchildren.  Think of our previous governor of Alabama (2011-2017), Robert Bentley, who threw away his life and all who loved him for a few weeks of pleasure.

We were visiting friends when they received a telephone call from their recently married daughter.  After several tense minutes on the phone, the mother told the father to pick up the extension.  The newlyweds had had their first big fight.  In a few moments, the father rejoined us and tersely explained, “Said she wanted to come home.”  “What did you tell her?” I asked.  “Told her she was home.”

Now, there is some good counsel.

 

                                                                                                    Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do:  

✞Be content with the wife of thy youth…she probably is the only one still willing to love you.

Common Sense About Affliction

Bible Reading: Psalm 119:65-72

Key Verse: Verses 71 - "It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes."

Key Words: It is good for me that I have been afflicted

Surely, the last thing we think about during affliction is the fact that it is good. 

As you read the Word of God you find that affliction is good.

Paul had a thorn in the flesh, and he asked God on three occasions to remove it, but God said, “My grace is sufficient for thee.”  Paul’s affliction allowed him to experience the grace of God.

We read in II Corinthians 1:4, “Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.”

Our affliction allows us to comfort others when they are going through a time of affliction.  It actually becomes a ministry.

It was the affliction of the three Hebrew children in the fiery furnace that revealed the power and deliverance of God.

So the psalmist is right when he says, “It is good for me that I have been afflicted.”

I am not a connoisseur of great art, but from time to time a painting or picture will really speak a clear, strong message to me.  Some time ago I saw a picture of an old burned-out mountain shack.  All that remained was the chimney...the charred debris of what had been that family’s sole possession.  In front of this destroyed home stood an old grandfather-looking man dressed only in his underclothes with a small boy clutching a pair of patched overalls.  It was evident that the child was crying.  Beneath the picture were the words which the artist felt the old man was speaking to the boy.  They were simple words, yet they presented a profound theology and philosophy of life.  Those words were, “Hush child, God ain’t dead!”

That vivid picture of that burned-out mountain shack, that old man, the weeping child, and those words “God ain’t dead” keep returning to my mind.  Instead of it being a reminder of the despair of life, it has come to be a reminder of hope!  I need reminders that there is hope in this world.  In the midst of all of life’s troubles and failures, I need mental pictures to remind me that all is not lost as long as God is alive and in control.  

 

                                                                                                            Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do:  

✞Remember, God doesn’t do things to us but allows things for us.

Common Sense About Choices

Bible Reading:  Ecclesiastes 11:7-10

Key Verse: Verse 9 - "Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment."

Key Words: God will bring thee into judgment

It seems as though that Solomon is back and forth and can’t make up his mind if youthfulness is positive or negative.

In verse 7 Solomon sees youthfulness as a positive.  The ability to have “sight” is a positive thing.

In verse 8 Solomon switches back to a negative, “Let him remember the days of darkness.”

But now in verse 9 he’s positive again, “Let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth.”

But in verse 10 he says childhood and youth are vanity.

The essence of what Solomon is saying is that the choices we make in our youth will determine if our life is filled with darkness or light.

 Your youthful days are empty if they are not lived right.  Life is a gift that is given to us by God, given one day at a time; in fact, one second at a time.  It is a precious gift, and it is to be used for the glory of God.  What is the chief end of man?  The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. 

                                                                                                Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do:  

✞Remember, you will live with your decisions so make your choices wisely.

Common Sense About Giving

Bible Reading: II Corinthians 9

Key Verse: Verse 7 - "Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver."

Key Words: God loveth a cheerful giver

A pastor in a rural community wanted to see if a farmer in his church was willing to support the Lord’s work.  As they were walking along one day, the pastor decided to ask him some direct questions.  “If you had two farms,” he said, “would you be willing to give one to the Lord?”  The farmer didn’t hesitate.  “Why, Pastor, you know if I had two farms, I’d be glad to give one to the Lord.”  The pastor asked another question.  “If you had $10,000, would you give $5,000 to the Lord?”  Again there was no hesitation.  “Why, of course I would, Pastor.  If I had $10,000, half of it would go right to the Lord.”  The pastor had one more question.  “If you had two hogs,” he said, “would you give one to the Lord?”  This time there was a lengthy pause.  Finally, the farmer replied, “Aw, Pastor, you know I’ve got two hogs!” 

 It was easy for the farmer to talk of giving so generously as long as it was something out of his reach.  But when it came down to what he really did have, he wasn’t willing to part with it.  He hadn’t learned to be a cheerful giver.  You see, God expects us to give out of the abundance of what He has blessed us with.  According to I Corinthians 16:2, each of us is to give according as God has prospered us.  But how can we give cheerfully?  The key to this is found in II Corinthians 8:1-5, where Paul commended the churches of Macedonia for their willingness to give.  Verse 5 tells us that, before they gave financially, they first gave their own selves to the Lord.  If you want to be a cheerful giver, first give yourself to the Lord, and your giving will be from a heart of love.

                                                                                                Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do:

✞Always remember that when one complains about “having” to give, it tells a lot about their relationship with God.