Don't give just for convenience

In our times, in many Christian circles giving has become mechanical, something one uses to manipulate God, and almost as if to force Him to bless us and provide for our selfish and materialistic motives.

A beautiful and profound doctrine about generosity to God and others has turned into something crude and harsh. It has been deformed and ugly, when in reality it is something sublime and artistic. In many churches today there is talk of giving almost as if it were about twisting God's arm.

I don't know if the saying of "turning the saint upside down" is used in your country. Superstitious people take the saints and literally turn them upside down to "force" them to perform the miracle they want. That is the spirit that sometimes animates much preaching and teaching today about prosperity.

Sometimes we believe that if I do something very specific, then God is going to have to give me something in return. It seems to me that in that there is something of superstition and even witchcraft. It is the same magical mentality that hopes to obtain a result if the precise magic word is said, or the ritual required for the spirits to respond to our manipulations is used. In the Christian world we do it with good intentions, and we often hear this kind of false teaching on prosperity from other preachers.

But you have to be very careful, because when spiritual things become mechanical, and do not come from the heart, they do not come out of an ethic of life, they do not come out of a biblical and spiritual conviction; when they do not spring from a style of living, from a process of consciousness through which we have gradually passed, which has spread throughout all parts of our being and which fills us evenly, mind, body, soul, spirit, everything. So it's like just picking up a hard stone and throwing it into God's earth. Whereas what God wants is that our whole being be permeated by a belief, a faith, a deeply spiritual attitude, and then that as a product of that attitude, organically, we give, and God be glorified.

We have to adopt an ethic of constant giving, not just when we want God to do something for us. We should give more good because that has become our very nature. May God have made me a happy giver, not a person who gives only when there is a need, or when it suits him, or when he wants to get something from God. Giving and sharing should be something that comes naturally to us.

Like when the woman with the issue of blood came and touched Jesus from behind and brushed the edge of his robe, what happened? The Bible says that grace, virtue, came out of Him. Why? Because the Lord was a natural healer. Supernatural and natural. That is to say, healing came from Him spontaneously, effortlessly, naturally. And when this woman touched him, as the Lord embodied healing, virtue came out of Him and healed her. Jesus didn't even have to work to heal, or make a conscious decision about it. There was a spontaneous escape from virtue, because Jesus incarnated, his spirit consisted of, grace and healing. The Lord applied to himself the words of the prophet Isaiah: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, and he has sent me to heal the sick, the blind," etc. So too must we be, spontaneous agents of life, healing, and grace.

We must be in such a way that when people stick to us, grace comes out of us because we have absorbed the Father's nature of being natural givers. We must learn to give in time and out of time. Many times we will give when it is inconvenient, or when we cannot get anything out of it, but simply glorify our Father, for being like Him. And that is the secret. When you learn to hit the uncomfortable zone, for yes, you are going to be blessed in an extraordinary way. Your family and your community are going to be blessed. Everything around you will flourish, because the nature of God will emanate incessantly from you as a source of grace and blessing towards others.