Giving Is A Mental Disposition -Babatunde Olugboji
The story of Cornelius, a centurion, in Acts of Apostles was illustrative of how giving invokes God’s blessings.
The Bible says, Cornelius and his family were devout and God-fearing. But Cornelius didn’t stop at being devout and God fearing, he did two additional things: gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly. And God rewarded him. One day he had a vision where he encountered an angel of God, who told him: “Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God.” (Acts 10:1-4).
Do you know that giving has nothing to do with being wealthy? Most stingy people use poverty as an excuse not to be generous. The root of the word ‘stingy’ is sting: ‘to prick or injure with a sharp-pointed, often venom-bearing equipment; a dialectal alteration of an old word that means biting, sharp, stinging.’
The word is related to ‘miserly,’ a pathological pleasure in acquiring and hoarding stuff that is so powerful that even necessities are only grudgingly purchased. Generous people are as hooked on being generous as stingy people are hooked on being stingy. A stingy person will find a way to be stingy, but a giving person will find a way to bless you because giving’s a mental disposition. When you give you create a vacuum which must be filled.
Being stingy could be passed down from your ancestors, it could also be a function of your environment. But wherever it came from, it is a curse.
When you were growing up and you never witnessed your parents giving, or if people never gave to you it may not seem wise to be a giver because no one illustrated it to you. And as an adult, you may be acting out what you see.
Not Cornelius . He was a giver. Giving is a blessing which brings blessings. When Abraham was looking for a wife for his son the only condition for his servant who went looking for a wife was a woman who was able to give his servant water and feed the flock: May it be that when I say to a young woman, ‘Please let down your jar that I may have a drink,’ and she says, ‘Drink, and I’ll water your camels too’—let her be the one you have chosen for your servant Isaac. By this I will know that you have shown kindness to my master.” (Gen 24:14)
Have you noticed that ‘currency’ is a word for money? It depicts a ‘condition of flowing,’ from the Latin word ‘currens,’ meaning ‘to run; the notion or state or fact of flowing from person to person. The word ‘currents’ is also used for water, like currents moving down the river, because money is made to flow.
Cornelius created a flow, gave to the poor, planted seeds and when it was time for blessing, he didn’t have to go to God, God came to him, through his angel. The powerful thing was that Cornelius combined his giving with praying. A dispensation to discipline in prayers and a propensity to generosity will get you to the point where God will memorialize you.
Have a great week.
Kingdom Dynamics, a weekly column is written by Dr. Babatunde Olugboji, the President, Kingdom House, a non-profit organization in New Jersey, USA.
