A cheerful giver knows that all we have belongs to God anyway. A cheerful giver recognizes how richly God has blessed us. A cheerful giver is glad for the chance to participate in God’s mission and is happy for the opportunity to store up treasures in heaven.
Some people are excellent gift-givers. They are thoughtful, considerate, and attentive. They always seem to know exactly what a person would like, even if that person doesn’t know themselves. Gifts from people like this aren’t just presents; they are a showcase of how well a person know and cares for another.
What makes a person a great gift-giver? There has to be some natural talent to it, but it also has to be a skill they work at and pay attention to. In the end, though, I suspect one of the things that makes a person a great gift-giver is simply that they want to be one. To put it another way, they are great gift-givers because they enjoy it.
There is a cheerfulness about the way they give—not a grudgingness. No generic, store bought cards for folks like this—no, there is great thought and effort put into gifts, but that thought and effort is not done grudgingly—it’s done with enjoyment. Cheerfully. And knowing that cheerfulness is behind the gift only makes it all the more meaningful to the one receiving it.
And so now we come to a specific command in the New Testament around the topic of giving:
Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
2 Corinthians 9:6-7
Of course God loves a cheerful giver, and we know why. It’s because a cheerful giver knows that all we have belongs to God anyway. A cheerful giver recognizes how richly God has blessed us. A cheerful giver is glad for the chance to participate in God’s mission and is happy for the opportunity to store up treasures in heaven.