In 2 Corinthians 9:7, Paul wrote, “God loves a cheerful giver.” God loves everyone, but He has a unique love for cheerful givers. If for no other reason, we should strive to give cheerfully because we love the Lord and want to be people He loves. Read, listen, or watch this material from Your Finances God’s Way to learn six reasons we should be cheerful givers.

https://youtu.be/1h01mek6B34
In 2 Corinthians 9:7, Paul wrote, “God loves a cheerful giver.” Learn six reasons we should be cheerful givers.

Table of ContentsHow We Want to Receive Gifts1. Give Cheerfully Because God Loves a Cheerful Giver2. Give Cheerfully Because It Sends Wealth Ahead3. Give Cheerfully Because We Can’t Take Wealth with Us4. Give Cheerfully Because We Enjoy Wealth for a Short TimeIn Light of Eternity We Enjoy Wealth as Long As Daniel5. Give Cheerfully Because God Sees What’s in Our Hearts Versus Our Hands6. Give Cheerfully Because of All We’ve Been GivenThree Simple Recommendations If You Still Struggle GivingFootnotes

I used to coach junior high wrestling. After one season, some of my wrestlers decided to buy me a gift. They pooled their money and purchased a nice plaque they planned to give me at the end-of-year banquet. While riding their bikes with the plaque to the banquet, one of them accidentally dropped it on the road and damaged it.

They were so happy to give me the plaque that, at first, nobody told me why it was damaged. Finally, someone apologized and explained what had happened. But they didn’t need to apologize because I was blessed by how happy they were to give it to me. Regardless of what it is, a gift means so much more when given cheerfully.

The opposite is also true: a gift means little when begrudged. Picture people who give through clenched teeth with the gift (figuratively speaking) having to be pried from their hands. Imagine they say:

“I hope this makes you happy, but I bet you would never give me something like this.”

“You better appreciate this because you wouldn’t believe how difficult it was for me to get it.”

“I don’t want to give this to you, but I know it’s your birthday, so I hope you enjoy it.”

Nobody wants gifts from stingy people, and the Bible even discourages us from accepting them:

Proverbs 23:6 Do not eat the bread of a man who is stingy; do not desire his delicacies, 7 for he is like one who is inwardly calculating. “Eat and drink!” he says to you, but his heart is not with you.

In other words, he doesn’t want to give you any of his stuff.

How We Want to Receive Gifts

If you’re a parent, think about a young child giving you a gift. If we’re honest, unless our child is very talented, the gift probably isn’t something we would purchase if we saw it in a store. Our children’s gifts are not valuable to us because of their quality. They are valuable because they are signs of their love for us. Another way to say it is children’s gifts are meaningful because of the heart behind them.

Giving is much bigger than the gift. An analogy: the gift is an iceberg above the water, and everything that goes into the gift is below the surface. The last sermon focused on the sacrifice involved in giving or the sacrifice below the surface. This sermon will focus on the way we give, or our attitudes because like we want gifts given to us cheerfully, so does our heavenly Father:

2 Corinthians 9:7 Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

I shared this verse in a previous sermon but didn’t cover its conclusion: God loves a cheerful giver. The Greek word translated “reluctantly” is lypē, meaning “with grief, sorrow, or sadness.” God wants glad givers, not sad or mad givers.

Robert Rodenmeyer said, “There are three kinds of giving: grudge giving, duty giving, and thanksgiving. Grudge giving says, ‘I have to’; duty giving says, ‘I ought to’; thanksgiving says, ‘I want to.