Nourishment for the Soul In Word and Song: Give More Than You Take

Give More Than You Take

Give what? Give to whom? More than what? More than I have to give? Why is it so important to give more than I take?

Giving comes after the precursor of encouragement. No one has ever given anything without encouragement attached to it—even if they are angry about something or someone. Your will takes over through encouragement and gives in to everlasting, unconditional love. When you give in to love—unconditional love—your life becomes ever so lasting. That’s because when you believe in love, life appears not only as a perceptual vision, but you also experience it in sound, sight, and all the other senses. You become part of the knowing of God. You know that your existence on earth makes a huge difference. Life on earth is the difference—so much so that allowing the wrong things into our lives restrains the grace we need to be able to give. Grace is giving. Allowing grace in our lives is allowing God to take away the things we cannot overcome.

Taking the grace given to us and giving it to others leads us into forgiveness. It leads us right into the face of life, the face of love, the face of joy, the face of forgiveness. The face of Jesus. If every time the chance becomes available, we choose giving versus taking, we will totally understand the concept of loving thy neighbor as thyself. After all, do we not give to ourselves, every single day?

Giving more than we take is not a lifestyle; it is a love style. It is a Christ style. It is Christ Himself forgiving, transcending, and continually permeating our senses. Grace is giving more than we take, knowing that God’s love is always with us. Knowing that through giving, others are accepting God’s grace, whether they realize it or not.

So why should we give more than we take? Because the grace of God is in us and around us, and we have been given forgiveness.