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If I Could Change Just One Thing
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Acts 20:35 … remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, for he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.
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Download audio fileI was asked to write an article recently for a magazine specifically for young women. Now you might ask yourself, what’s a grey-haired guy like me, doing writing an article in a magazine for young women?
I ended up writing an article called, “If I could change just one thing …”. Maybe, just maybe, I could share the benefits of some hard-earned wisdom with each young reader.
So, I asked myself, if I could change just one thing, what would that be? The answer was pretty obvious.
I spent the first thirty-six years of my life, believing the world’s lie that it’s all about me. That if I stuff enough money, possessions, experiences and accolades into my life, then I’ll be happy. It was a lie that I, like many other young people, swallowed hook, line and sinker. I set about clawing my way to success. I had the big car, the big house, the career that was heading very much in the right direction. The world was my oyster.
In fact it worked so well, that I almost took my own life out of sheer desperation at the emptiness, the utter desolation in my soul.
If I could change anything it would be this – to have discovered much, much earlier on, that life is not all about me. That there’s another way of living that’s far more satisfying than trying to fill yourself with as much stuff and recognition as you possibly can.
… remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, for he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive. (Acts 20:35)
If I could have my time over, my one desire is that I would discover the powerful truth that it is, indeed, far more blessed to give than to receive. That one truth would have saved me from a world of pain and misery.
When Jesus came into my life, He started to teach me to give. At first I resisted. It was hard. But little by little, He taught me the lesson. He taught me to sacrifice of what I have, of the gifts and abilities that He’s given me. It was slow progress to begin with, because giving was so radically opposed to my ideology of receiving.
But then the strangest thing happened, I started experiencing the satisfaction and contentment that I’d been yearning for. I discovered the joy of using who He made me to be and all that He gave me, to bless other people.
To this day, the extent of the blessing that I get by giving, remains the most surprising thing about becoming a Christian. Who would ever have thought that the satisfaction and contentment that I’d been yearning for, lay so simply, in giving rather than receiving.
It is more blessed to give than to receive.
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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