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It's Five Minute Friday! A weekly flashmob of bloggers gathering internet-wide to write for five minutes (no stopping, no editing) on a prompt provided by sweet Kate, then linking up and sharing a little comment love. For more posts, more info, and/or to join in, head here! Give. Humanity lives in a cycle of give and take - usually more taking then giving, and the giving that we do on our own is motivated by a desire to get something in return. Since everyone else is engaged in the same quest, it doesn't really work out very well. But it doesn't have to be that way.

Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. {Colossians 2:6-7}

No more taking. Everything we need is given to us - He knows what we need before we ask for it (and He knows when not to give us what we're asking for, because it's not best), and He invites to trust Him instead of trying (and failing) to take what we need (and want) for ourselves.

How much energy do we waste with our futile chasing of dreams and desires? And it's all for nothing. Our needs are supplied, from undeserved forgiveness to daily bread, so that our energy is freed up for a greater purpose - first, to give thanks for what we've been given. Then, to let that gratitude overflow so that we also give to others.

On the brink of a season consumed with consumerism, how can we shift our focus from getting to giving?
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Posted by Sarah Jo Burch at 9:42 PM Labels: Five Minute Friday Tara Ulrich said...

The world truly is guilty of giving and taking arent we? But God is the one who provides us all that we need. "Ask and it shall be given to you. Seek and ye shall find. Knock and the door will be opened to you."

Visiting from FMF!

November 27, 2014 at 9:56 PM Katha said...

Thanks for the reminder! So true, we've been given everything. And yet we seem to have a hard time really accepting it...may we continue to learn it! Happy Friday to you!

November 28, 2014 at 2:55 AM Summer Floyd said...

Great post. I loved this line, "Our needs are supplied, from undeserved forgiveness to daily bread, so that our energy is freed up for a greater purpose - first, to give thanks for what we've been given. Then, to let that gratitude overflow so that we also give to others."
I agree and hadn't thought of it in that way. That our needs are often met to free us to no longer focus on them but focus outward!

November 28, 2014 at 7:22 AM iwillbloom said...

What a beautiful post (and one I really needed to hear today). I'm going through a really difficult time, personally, at the moment and, about a week ago, opened my Bible at 3am (stress-induced insomnia) to find Matthew 6: 25-34 popping out of the page at me. I have been so, so comforted by those words since that time: as you say, we have to have a little faith that our earthly needs will be taken care of, so we can try to be that much calmer and that much more helpful and generous and forgiving here on Earth....thank you for the reminder, and for your beautiful post: it definitely arrived to me as I am opening to hear these messages. Thank you. [A fellow FMF-er]

November 28, 2014 at 10:55 AM Trisha Carter said...

I think we can change from getting to giving by recognizing the real reason for Christmas & that is not the gifts or the food but it is the birth of Jesus Christ. When we recognize that, we will see the selfless love that God has for us by sending His only Son to die on a cross for us. Giving and loving are what the kingdom is really about!

November 28, 2014 at 4:12 PM 

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