Perhaps you have heard the saying, “It is better to give than to receive.”
I believe a more accurate rendering of that statement would be, “It is easier to give than to receive.”
God has been working on me in the area of learning how to be a good receiver. I love to give; I love to pour myself out to others, but receiving (accepting) has always been a struggle for me.
When someone does something nice for me, I feel guilty. Surely I don’t deserve such kindness.
When someone gives me a compliment, I smile and say thank you, but in my heart I don’t believe the accolade is true.
When someone offers help, I gracefully decline and resolve to do it on my own.
Why is it so hard to receive – to accept?
Sadly, this mindset even spills over into our spiritual life and relationship with God. We go to God in prayer and present our requests before Him, but then we continue charging forward, as if we need to solve each dilemma on our own. We know that God is more than capable of answering our prayers without our assistance, so, why don’t we just accept His help and let go.
For me personally, insecurity definitely plays a part in my failure to receive, but ultimately my reluctance has to do with a far deeper issue – pride.
P-R-I-D-E – that dirty little word has been driving sin and rebellion since the beginning of time.
“Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.” (Philippians 4:9)
My husband and I are part of a small group through our home church. Once a week we meet with Christian friends to study God’s Word and fellowship. Our group recently completed a six week study called The Journey Home. The study’s main focus was on deepening the relationship we have with our Heavenly Father and remembering our spiritual journey has a destination – heaven. One of the crucial elements for nurturing our intimate relationship with God is to cultivate a spirit of receiving.
“If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:11)
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.” (Matthew 7:7-8)
Since our Heavenly Father loves to give, we need to learn how to receive. It seems like a fairly elementary teaching of Christianity, and yet each one in our group recognized that it was a lesson we hadn’t fully (pardon the pun) “received”.
The last night of our study we practiced a humbling exercise aimed at nurturing our spirits to receive. Each person took a turn in the “hot seat” while the others went around the room and shared what they appreciated and loved about that person. Wow! What a powerful exercise in humility and receiving. We went through two boxes of tissues by the end of the evening!
I later shared with the group how it felt as though we were peering through a spiritual window and catching a glimpse of what heaven will be like.
Not only did we nurture our ability to receive, but we also learned how important it is to encourage one another and provide unconditional love and acceptance. Hearing accolades of love didn’t puff us up with pride. In fact, it had the opposite effect – we felt a deep sense of humility.
I learned through this experience that a spirit of receiving always requires humility. It is not based on merit; we don’t deserve it. It is not based on success; we can do nothing to earn it. It is a gift, plain and simple, a gift that can only be fully appreciated when we open ourselves up to receive.
“And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe.” (1 Thessalonians 2:13)