This post is a part of the Five Minute Friday link up. We write for just 5 minutes without heavy editing and see what happens. Today’s prompt is “Take.”
I’ve lived the better part of my adult life as a missionary supported prayerfully and financially by the gifts of others. If people don’t give, we get no paycheck. So I have learned over these 30+ years that if someone offers something, I take it graciously and just say thank you.
God has always met our needs and we have abundantly more than we need, so I know the power of receiving a gift, not only because it meets a need for us, but also because of the joy it can bring to the giver.
We have living room furniture because friends didn’t need it anymore. We have a kitchen table and chairs because friends wanted proceeds from the sale of ours at a yard sale to go to our son’s missions trip (I know, it’s kind of a complicated story). We received tons of baby stuff when our grandson was born because of the generosity of a group of young moms who just wanted to be able to pay it forward.
We can give generously as well because we have received so much. If we refuse to receive, we dishonor the giver. Yes, it’s humbling to admit the need, but it’s good and it’s necessary. We don’t go through this life alone, and we shouldn’t pretend like we don’t need the generosity of others.
“God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God” (1 Corinthians 1:28-29).
Compelled 
I think many of us find it difficult to take – whether that’s accepting material gifts or accepting help – but life is about both giving and taking and I agree, when people have shown generosity to us it does inspire us to pay that forward to others. It’s a great reminder that we are meant to help each other and share with one another.
Thanks, Lesley. That is what it’s about, isn’t it? Maybe people think “neither a borrower nor a lender be” is biblical rather than from Shakespeare!
Thank you for sharing this angle. I am one who finds receiving a gift awkward at times. Thank you for the reminder of taking it and be thankful. Receiving and gratitude honor the giver… that’s a good word. Blessings on your service for the kingdom.
Thank you! If we remember that salvation is a free gift, maybe that will help us receive from others as well!
Paying it forward is such an essential concept! I love your little stories in your post.
I also think that when our personal gifts come up we need to recognize them and take them ourselves so we can give to others. Thanks for the thinking moment with your post.
I am your neighbor from FMF!
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Thanks, Tammy! Good point about our gifts as well. Don’t begrudge others what God has given us to share.
Wow!! How timely and fitting a message this is. Although this may be a mere Five Minute Friday link up, it’s a divine one for me. For the last 11 years the Lord’s led me on a pretty amazing journey, sometimes quite different though, having to rely upon His provision which many times came through the hands and hearts of others, whom He’d touched! Talk about an humbling experience, well, this has been one. But it’s also been one that the Lord has used to reveal His sovereign will “to do” in our lives and one to help me learn to live TOTALLY dependent upon Him for EVERYTHING. Now this has been worth more than any amount of money or wealth one could ever amass. The spiritual wealth that the Lord has given me on this journey has been breathtaking.
Thank You Lord for this message!!!
“Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, 3 “Get away from here and turn eastward, and hide by the Brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan. 4 And it will be that you shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.” 5 So he went and did according to the word of the Lord, for he went and stayed by the Brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan. 6 The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening; and he drank from the brook. 7 And it happened after a while that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land…..1 Kings 17:2-7
Thank you so much to sharing your story. It’s a time of life you will never forget. May the Lord be ever present for you. Thank you for reading and commenting!
Such a wise, firsthand, look at the “other side” of giving. The receiving – something so many seem to struggle with! Thanks for sharing. It is wonderful to see how God has blessed and provided for you so faithfully!!
Thanks, Jennifer!