You Must Receive in Order to Give

I realize that the title of this reflection may be somewhat shocking on this page. We often hear the saying, "It is better to give than to receive." But is it always? Perhaps it depends what and from whom we are receiving.

This week's theme is 'true discipleship', and the opening invocation reads:

"Good Teacher, help me in this hour to hear your clear call to discipleship. By the power of your Spirit grant me wisdom, courage and strength to live as your disciple all day long. Amen.

This prayer clearly shows the relationship between receiving and giving. In order to give ourselves to others in discipleship (following & spreading God's teachings), we must first receive the wisdom, courage and strength that God has to give us. In fact, if we think about it... receiving is a beautiful and important part of the story which allows us to truly recognize God's power in our lives- "I can do nothing apart from Christ who gives me strength." If we attempt to give without Christ's love, courage, wisdom, and strength, we are certainly headed for burnout. We're trying to give water from an empty well... which will leave both ourselves and others thirsty.

In order to give good spiritual gifts, we must receive God's wonderful spiritual gifts that He longs to give to us in our quiet devotional times with Him.

As disciples, we are asked to imitate and follow our teacher, as is described below:

¹ Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, ² then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. ³ Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, ⁴ not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

⁵ In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

⁶ Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
⁷ rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
⁸ And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross! (Phillipians 2:1-8)

The first verse above is filled with the conditional "if", suggesting that in order to be like-minded and truly imitate Christ, there are certain requirements. And how can we feel encouragement in Christ, comfort from His love, sharing in His Spirit, tenderness and compassion? We must first receive all these beautiful gifts from God... coming before God in prayer, reading His word, opening our hearts and time to Him... only then can we have the same selfless love of Jesus, when He works in our lives and grants us those "good and perfect gifts".

This morning I pray especially for all the graduate students in GCF, especially the new graduate students. Confronted with many new jobs and pressures, it's often hard to set time apart for the Lord. But I pray that each morning, these students are able to find even 15 minutes to read, to pray, to receive God's Holy Spirit, so that He may walk with them each through the day... enabling them to live each day as Christ's disciples on campus.

Similarly, I pray each day for my marriage. Marriage is our opportunity to live out Christ's love for us to each other... this love in which we put the other person first, before our own desires. But we can only do this truly with God's love. So, I pray that God would grant me the wisdom, kindness, compassion, and selflessness of His Spirit to teach me how to love my husband more and more in the way that Christ loves us.