Breaking Our Ego with Giving

As I've shared before, I am slowly re-reading, The Gentle Ways of the Beautiful Woman, by Anne Ortlund. Her words are a dose of reality for me, which the Holy Spirit uses to straighten my course and bounce me back from the detours I've absent-mindedly taken.

This morning was just the dose I needed, espeically as I face a full day with the kids while preparing my heart, and my family, to serve at a children's ministry for lower income families this afternoon. Yes, I am nervous to do this, but Anne reminds me that this is a stretching of "real" living through giving -- of our time and of our resources. It fits right in with the mission the Lord has laid on our hearts to "$ave to Give."

Anne's words are so profound, that I felt compelled to share them with you. I hope you are inspired:

"God is most concerned about what happens in the disciplines of your heart.

'Trust Me," He says. 'Trust Me. Trust Me.' Giving is the ways to riches, because you can handle the riches when your ego has been gotten out of the way:

Luke 6:38

Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

My friend, if this is the life you want--this life of trust and rest and richness in Christ--deliberately turn your back on the touchable, material world and concentrate on the real world.

If you live in the grey world of trying to combine God and materialism, you'll become more and more earthly, self-centered, dull, flabby, bloated, insensitive, and out of touch. The choice is up to you.

Friend, turn from being consumed by fabrics and furniture and food. Move out of the obsession with that external world into the real world--where your heart is a bona fide naturalized citizen, and where your thinking processes and habits are becoming more and more at home.

Matt 6:33

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

O Lord, open my eyes to see the world of reality! Open my eyes to see what You see, to love what You love, to hate what You hate, and to use with ease what You give me to use." (p. 179-180)