Gathering together at church, with other believers, is important. The gifts of the Holy Spirit edify the person using the gift, but when other believers see someone using their gifts, it edifies the body of Christ.

Today, we are in 2 Samuel 4:4, the account of Mephibosheth, son of Jonathan, son of King Saul. When Jonathan and Saul were both killed, Mephibosheth was 5. His nurse heard the news and hurried away but she dropped Mephibosheth and he became crippled. Have you ever dropped something? Our first children were twins. With twins, both mom and dad are on all the time. When our girls were newborn, I fell asleep feeding Ava, our first born twin. My hands went limp and Ava rolled off my chest onto the floor. She is ok - graduated in the top of her class this year. It wasn’t intentional. She is precious and valuable to me, but I fell asleep. We do this in life. There are things we drop or lose unintentionally because we fall asleep or lose focus. 

Mephibosheth wasn’t dropped intentionally. But he was crippled, and as he grew, he tried to figure out where he fit in. We can relate. Even in our adulthood, we can still be the proverbial middle schooler, walking in with our lunch, trying to see where we fit, where we belong. Well, you belong here, in the body of Christ. It doesn’t matter your level of faith. Grace is the foundation of Christianity and the essence of salvation. We are broken, but God is perfect and beautiful. We are all broken in common and we are all blessed in common. 

In 2 Samuel 9:1-13, King David asks if there is any member of Saul’s house he could show kindness to for his best friend Jonathan’s sake. The servant Ziba told David that Jonathan had a son. He didn’t use his name but he described his problem; he was messed up and broken. The king said “Where is he?” Ziba was thinking, maybe if the king knew Jonathan’s son was broken, he wouldn’t want him. But even in Mephibosheth’s brokenness, the king still wanted to know where he was. We pull ourselves away from others, even our God, in our brokenness and pain.  But, we have a king who wants us even though we are broken. 

Mephibosheth was presented to King David and bowed low, probably thinking it was the end of his life as he once was a rightful heir to the throne. But the king said “Do not fear.” Mephibosheth was positioned for one last plea for mercy. But David had planned kindness for him. A lot of us are in a dark place, far from knowing our value and worth in Christ, but the King (Jesus) calls us to Himself.

David restored all Saul’s lands to Mephibosheth and invited him to sit at the King’s table - always. Mephibosheth asked why. He had the mindset of a poor and disabled orphan, a dead dog. He couldn’t forget that he was broken and ashamed of who he was. Can you relate?  Don’t excuse yourself from the King's invitation. 

Church is not a place for perfect people. Don’t walk through the world looking for evidence that you fit in or have worth. Know who you are in Christ. Sometimes we look backward while trying to run forward and it cripples us. Do not negotiate who you are with another person and lose yourself that way, crippling yourself in the process. As long as you’re good with God, you’re good. 

We each have scars. It’s not our fault. We were just dropped. Some are more broken than others. We have scars all over. But, scars show we made it through, that we were not defeated. Thomas asked Jesus to show him the scars on His hands and side. He wanted to see victory. It was not doubt, it was destiny. 

If you’re hurt and broken, you can be restored and receive help. Ephesians 2:3 is the truth, that we were born with evil natures, under God's anger like everyone else. We are beat up on the outside but no one can destroy what’s on the inside. God did great things with Moses the murderer, Rahab the prostitute, Saul the Christian killer and Peter the Denier of Christ. He can do great things with us. 

Church is community in your life. In community, when I fall, my friends, brothers, and pastors will catch me. Do you know where I meet my friends, brothers and pastors? At church! Insecurities would keep you from building relationships, but you have to have relationships to stay safe. We stay outside because we’re afraid of what our past reflects on us. But, it is not our past that disqualifies us. Mephibosheth was able to come into the king’s presence because of who his father was. It’s your father that leads you into your destiny. David invited Mephibosheth because David wanted to bless Jonathan's family. Romans 5:17-19 states we are provided abundantly with grace and righteousness because of Christ. You do not have to live in the shadow of your past or generational curses. 

Before you accept Christ, your spirit is dead. Jesus came to make dead things alive. There’s a place for you in the house of God whether you are broken, blessed, lame or living large. Mistakes and shortcomings accepted. You belong here. We’ve got a seat for you at the table. Your damage doesn’t define you. God has a plan and purpose for your life. It didn’t matter who Mephibosheth was. It mattered who his father was. Damaged doesn’t mean undeserving. Mephibosheth was seated at the king's table. When he sat down, his brokenness was covered because his lameness was in his feet. Come sit at the table so that everything that is wrong with you is covered. The name Mephibosheth means “idol breaker, exterminator of shame”. Like a crumpled box that has been mishandled in shipment, you are “Damaged but Still Deliverable”.  What is on the inside is still a tr

Today, I want to talk about pride. A message on pride, for purposes of actual change in people’s lives, is a frustrating topic because the people who need to hear it don’t think it’s for them.

I want to challenge you as you read this article to be open to considering that you have a little bit of pride. Keep in mind that if you’re not open to receiving this message you probably need to hear it.

Most of us don’t typically see pride as a real sin. But God detests pride (Proverbs 16:5). No one wants God to look at us like we’re detestable! But, we tend to dismiss pride as a sin. For a different perspective, what if I was talking about lust and I admitted to checking people out. Your response would be “that’s gross” and you wouldn’t want to hear from me anymore. Pride is just as bad. 

Pride is not necessarily ego. Pride is tricky and can manifest by drawing attention to yourself by appearing pathetic. The end result is you are still after people’s attention for yourself. Our job is to put all attention on God. We want to show off who He is. Are you worried about what people are thinking about you all the time? You may be struggling with pride. 

Pride is a pervasive matter. No one wants to admit to it. Honestly, it’s easier for me to admit to it when I’m writing a message about it. Pride is usually why we get our feelings hurt and why we feel rejection. Pride is the reason we can’t admit to making a mistake. Pride causes us to take ourselves a little too seriously. We will resent criticism if we are prideful. Insecurity is a result of pride because we are seeking for others to notice and praise us. Pride causes us to see ourselves as overly important or more special to God than others. Pride will make us want to blame others for our problems.

Mark 7:21-23 gives us a list of things that defile us including pride. 

“For from within, out of a person’s heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. All these vile things come from within; they are what defile you.”

So how do we become humble? How do we develop a humble attitude? Humility is not a look. It’s not the way we dress or what we drive. Humility is not about letting people walk all over you. Humility is knowing that God is our source - that all we have comes from God. We’re created to bring glory to God. So often we want to draw attention to ourselves but we need to focus on and bring focus to God.

Humility of all the virtues is the hardest one to gain and maintain because we all want to be first and we want to be noticed and we want to be important. But, we must have everything in Christ and nothing in ourselves. I don’t deserve all God has allowed me to do and be a part of in the natural, but God can do anything with anybody who stays humble before Him.

When I started, I had a big vision with little reality. I kept pressing toward that vision and God, in His faithfulness, taught me humility along that way. I was insecure and wanted to be great and important, but I had to get rid of that attitude. It's humble people God can help. He opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble.

We are to have the same attitude as Christ. He is our example of humility. He came from heaven and took on a human body. He never defended himself. His depth of humility is unfathomable. He loved everyone even while He was mistreated. Instead of focusing on Himself in those moments, He was thinking about what those who were persecuting Him were doing to themselves. Those who mistreat you don’t know what they’re doing. He prayed for them! Jesus forgave them. He loved them. 

Humility treats everyone with care and love no matter who they are. Pride is boastful and high minded, thinking of yourself more highly than you should. We don’t have to think of ourselves as below others, but just not more highly than others. Have a servant’s attitude. Judging and criticizing others is the fruit of pride. One of the most important things that reveals our level of pride or humility is how we treat other people, especially people that we or the world might deem as unimportant. 

If you’re going to be in authority, you need to know how to be under authority. You need to learn how to be under authority without complaining and gossiping, even in the privacy of your home. It’s the words you’re putting out there that are the problem. Zip your lip. Use a glue stick instead of chapstick! When you are going through tough times that make you want to complain and be vengeful, remember, often the things that hurt you the most will teach you the most.

Are you in a dark place? God will give you treasures out of this if you submit to Him in the process. Pray for God to do what He wants with you. But be ready. Like a puzzle that has a lot of plain blue or green pieces, one by one as the pieces come together, the big picture will emerge over time as God does a good work in you. We’re each called to do something. God wants to use you. But it will only be under the condition of humility.

How often are we dealing with pride and don’t know it? It's a priority and imperative that you get your heart in the right place, and know who you are in Christ. God is not impressed by the positions we hold, but is drawn to our love, our hunger and our thirst for Him. After seeking His righteousness first, are we pure in heart? How are we treating other people that the world thinks are unimportant? Let’s work at getting ourselves off of our own mind. Look for those who are hurting. Work to bless and encourage someone else. 

Pray and ask God to show you every time you’re in pride. “Because of the privilege and authority God has given me, I give each of you this warning: Don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us” (Romans 12:3 NLT).

Today, I will continue my series about habits. I am introducing habits that we don’t often think of and this week I wanted to talk about the habit of excellence. Excellence is doing the best you can with what you’ve got. The key is to treat what you own and live your life with excellence - make it a lifestyle.

You may have noticed, it is very easy to be a mediocre person. All you have to do is make no extra effort of any kind and drift through life making no difference in the world. But if you will dare to form the habit of being excellent in all that you do, you will be a bright light in the darkness, which is exactly what God has called you to be. God is excellent and we were created in His image. So if we are to reach our full potential in Him, then we also must choose to be excellent. 

Excellence is not perfection. I read somewhere that the pursuit of excellence is gratifying and healthy, but the pursuit of perfection is frustrating, neurotic, and a waste of time. There’s a big difference. Striving for perfection can make you feel like a failure and actually, procrastination can result from being a perfectionist. Fear of falling below the expectations of people paralyzes progress.Do your best and trust God to do the rest.God wants us to always grow and make progress, but He is never angry with us because we have not yet arrived. 

To be excellent means to do a little more than you might have to do to get by. When we compromise, it means that we do less than we know is right or proper. Go the extra mile, but don’t take on more than you should in order to properly do what you’ve committed to. Making the commitment to be habitually excellent and following through on your commitments will be very rewarding. Pursuing excellence won’t be easy at first, but eventually it will become a habit.

Develop a system to pursue excellence. I suggest making five signs that simply say “excellence” and put them in places where you’ll see them several times a day. I also believe strongly in the power of verbal confession to help you form a new image of yourself. Try saying these things out loud daily, even multiple times a day. “I do what I do with excellence.” Then expand your confession. “I am an excellent person. I do my work with excellence. I take excellent care of myself and all that I own. I treat people excellently. I think excellent thoughts and I speak excellent words.”

The confessions that you make, which may be totally by faith in the beginning, will help you to remember to do things with excellence and also change how you see yourself. Once you see yourself as being excellent, it will not be a struggle to do what you do with excellence.Remember, habits are developed through repetition, so when you form the habit of excellence it will help you break the habit of mediocrity.

We know in our hearts if we are truly doing the best that we can do, if we are giving it our all. If we are not, then we should make a decision to adjust and move toward excellence. Let’s always do our best not just for significance or praise from others or for worldly promotion, but let’s do all that we can do to glorify God and live an excellent life for Him. I believe He will reward us for our excellence.

The excellence lifestyle starts small, right where you are. Put things back where you got them. Return the grocery cart to its spot in the parking lot. Pick up the trash on the floor.Excellence is a lifestyle… and I believe it’s part of a godly lifestyle.

Ask yourself…

• How often do you compromise and take the easy way out?
• Do you keep your commitments?
• Do you drift along in life or are you pressing toward the best?
• Do you always tell the truth?

I could keep adding to that list but I think you get the point that I’m trying to make. We will never get where we want to be unless we truthfully admit where we are right now. Start making the choices and facing the truth and the truth will set you free.

When we are excellent we feel better about ourselves. I found the reward of excellence is peace, peace I receive when I make an effort to do things the way they should be done and don’t compromise to do less than I know is right. 

Actions follow what we think, so we must first become excellent in our thoughts. “And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise” (Philippians 4:8 NLT). “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7 AMPC). What kind of thoughts do you entertain? When you recognize that your thoughts are not good, do you take action to cast them out of your mind or do you just lazily let them remain? It is impossible to become an excellent person without first developing an excellent mind. Thoughts are the first line of defense and we must deal with them. Our mind and thoughts belong to us and we should not allow the devil to use them as a garbage dump.

Just as we can direct our thoughts, we can also direct our words with God‘s help. The power of life and death are in the tongue (Proverbs 18:21). Our words affect us and the people around us. They also affect what God is able to do for us. We cannot have a negative mouth and end up with a positive life. The apostle Peter teaches us in I Peter 3:10, that if we want to enjoy life and see good days even in the midst of trials we must keep our tongue free from evil. Change your words and you can change your life.

It’s also important that we treat all people excellently. God loves all people and does not take it kindly when we mistreat them. Be polite, respectful, and appreciative. Be encouraging. Everyone in the world wants to feel valuable and many are struggling with feelings of low self-esteem. We are in a position to be used by God to help them by treating each one with excellence. Be an oasis of love. “But earnestly desire and zealously cultivate the greatest and best gifts and graces (the higher gifts and the choicest graces). And yet I will show you a still more excellent way [one that is better by far and the highest of them all–love]” (1 Corinthians 12:31 AMPC).

Love is the most excellent way of all.

Today, I continue with a message on things that made Jesus mad. Anytime there's blocked access to God, it makes Jesus mad. If you haven’t seen my message on Jesus’ temple-tantrum from last week, please go back and read/listen.

So, legalism… I hate it. If you've got a stupid rule, I'm going to want to challenge it. I want to know why the rule is there and if it makes sense! Rules are never going to be able to cover every scenario we could come up with and an effort to try to make rules that do so results in stupid rules. 

Do you realize your behavior, your judgment, your rules, may be keeping people out of Heaven?? Jesus said it this way in Matthew 23:13 (NIV),“Woe to you …You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.” Earlier in Matthew 23, Jesus spoke to the crowds and said, “Do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy, burdensome loads and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.” 

To quote a modern icon, Homer Simpson answered Bart’s question about what religion they were, “You know, the one with all the well-meaning rules that don't work out in real life... Christianity.” What happens if Homer's statement is true? Well-meaning rules that don't work in real life create a huge unnecessary barrier and this makes Jesus mad.

So, do we not need rules? Of course, we need rules. I know we need rules. I know society needs governance. God gave us rules because He loves us. That's the difference. He loves us so He gave us rules. Think about the Ten Commandments for a second. They're all for our benefit. They provide a foundation for a relationship with our loving Father and for our general well-being, individually and socially. Here's the thing, the problem is whenour interpretation of the laws of God hinder people getting to God. At that point they are our laws and our rules. If we don't understand God’s laws but we’re expecting others to follow those interpretations, it creates a barrier for people to get to God. This makes Jesus mad.

In Mark 3:1-6, Jesus decided that it was time for the Pharisees to learn a lesson about forcing people to go through well-meaning rules that don't work in real life. And so, He broke one of them. “Once again Jesus entered the synagogue, and a man with a withered hand was there. In order to accuse Jesus, they were watching to see if He would heal on the Sabbath. Then Jesus said to the man with the withered hand, ‘Stand up among us.’ And He asked them, ‘Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?’ But they were silent. Jesus looked around at them with anger and sorrow at their hardness of heart. Then He said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ So he stretched it out, and it was restored. At this, the Pharisees went out and began plotting with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.”

The Pharisees, the religious ones, the church leaders literally started plotting how to KILL JESUS in response to this miracle. What was Jesus mad about? He was mad about the hardness of their hearts. They were so caught up in their own religious beliefs, they couldn’t see THE NEED of the man!!! He was mad about the fact that they were blocking the Kingdom of God. When Jesus did miracles on the Sabbath, He did them purposefully.  He was trying to tell us to look at the need, not the law.  He was trying to tell us to look at the person, not our own idea of religion.

What did the crowd think? The crowd thought Jesus was awesome. The outsiders loved Jesus, but he made the church uncomfortable. I sure hope that you have met the real Jesus. And I hope, as Christians, we can introduce the real Jesus to those who are outside the church. At the very least, I hope that we can understand that Jesus didn't come to show us how to follow the rules. Jesus came to fulfill the rules, to complete their purpose, in love.

The church is not comfortable with Jesus turning to a thief being executed on the cross, and saying, "Oh, you want to go? Yeah, sure. Come on." Paul said it in Gal 5:6 (NIV), “The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” That's what matters. It’s not which one of these rules you're getting all right. Jesus was more interested in doing good than following rules. And Paul said, "Yeah, exactly."

There's something inside all of us that feels safer when we know we’re playing within the rules of the game. Steve Brown wrote inA Scandalous Freedom, "But the good news is that Christ freed us from the need to obnoxiously focus on our goodness, and our commitment, and our correctness. But religion has made us obsessive almost beyond endurance. Jesus invited us to a dance, and we've turned it into a march of soldiers, always checking to see if we're doing it right, and if we're in step and in line with the other soldiers. We know a dance would be more fun, but we believe we must go through Hell to get to Heaven, so we just keep marching."

Man, this feels dangerous. Maybe it's time to understand what grace is really about. Grace is dangerous. Does that mean God doesn't care how we live? No, of course not. He wants what's best for us. The difference is the order of the scandalous response that Jesus gave the woman caught in the act of adultery: 1) Neither do I condemn you. 2) Now I want you to have a better life. Grace, then truth. I love you and here is what’s best for you.

What traditions have you turned into legalism, rules, judgment?? What are you doing that may be keeping others from seeing the redeeming love and grace of Christ in your life? Are you so self righteous that others can’t see His love through you? God, help us. Let’s partner with God in getting those who are outside connected with Him.

Happy Easter! This is the day we celebrate Jesus conquering death and the grave. During our service today at MCC, we heard an amazing testimony of redemption and restoration, literally a story of a life bound for death and destruction to a life of promise and hope. It reminds me of God's goodness. It makes me crazy about God. I want more of Him. On Easter, there is so much pressure to preach well in hopes that people will love the message and return for more. How do I get this message right today? If I do well, maybe people will come back for Christmas. How do I make Jesus’ torture, crucifixion and death exciting? How do I explain the resurrection which is the most exciting part? All of this is hard for some to believe because they don’t understand. But actually, people believe a lot of things they don’t understand and can’t explain. God wouldn't be a God worth believing in if we understood Him completely. He is a big, amazing God. We just need to ask the right questions.

In considering the message today, I looked to Jesus for answers. The Gospels talk about Jesus and how He spoke to large crowds with lots of visitors and guests. What did He do? I usually try to make things simple and easy but Jesus seemed to make things more confusing. In Luke 8:4-10, He tells the parable of the sower. Keep in mind, people had traveled long distances to see Jesus speak and hopefully perform a miracle. They’d heard about healings and teachings and raising of the dead. So what did Jesus teach this crowd of guests and visitors who were so anxious to hear Him and see Him? He taught them a parable and then closed with the statement, “Anyone who has ears to hear should listen and understand.” His take on his talk that day was,  “If you get it you get it (and if you don’t, you don’t).” Then, He just walked away, dropped the mic, left the stage. The disciples were so curious to know what He was doing. They followed Him and asked about the meaning of the parable later. Jesus explained that the parable was for the seeing who don’t see and the hearing who don’t understand. Parables were not supposed to be easy to understand. He taught parables so the ones who really wanted to understand would go after Him. He was trying to reach those who wanted to search out the truth. He only wanted to speak to the ones who really wanted to hear and learn and understand. Like the farmer in the parable, He wasn’t going to take time to water a beaten down path where seed could not grow. He knew He couldn’t get through to people who couldn’t receive because of the cares in this world. That ground was not ready. Those seeds would wither and their roots wouldn't go deep.He knew that those who wanted God would clear everything else out of their lives in pursuit of learning and understanding what God was saying. The disciples were those people. They were all in. They wanted something different so they did something different. A farmer looks for good soil. This is where he will water.

Jesus knew those seeking truth would come after Him. They were hungry for the truth. Are you hungry for truth? Often, we don’t want to know the truth. In fact, belief systems are often based on desires rather than truth. John 8:32 tells us that we will know the truth and the truth will set us free. If we accept the truth, we will be set free. Unfortunately, we want the lie in many cases.

Jesus was tortured, taking on our iniquity in exchange for His healing. He took on the crown of thorns for our thoughts and mental health, and He shed His blood for the remission of our sins. He conquered death and the grave.  Through his death and resurrection, He restored us to God. Jesus’ passion shows us the truth and He did it all for each of us. In fact, He would have done it even if we were the only one who needed it. Before Jesus, people could only approach the temple with an animal sacrifice which did not deal with sin but covered it for a time. Jesus’ death and resurrection restores us to real fellowship with God. We can talk directly to God and be in His presence. The perfect sacrifice was made that paid the price once for all.

There is a story of a famous artist who found his very first painting on display in an antique shop in his hometown. It was dirty and the frame was broken. The painting needed restoration, but it was no longer his to restore.  Even though he was the artist, he couldn’t just walk in and take it. He had to purchase it to restore it and bring it back to its original beauty. Jesus purchased healing and restoration for us. Why did Jesus die on the cross? He did it to bring us forgiveness, new life and hope for the future.

Are you restored? Are you living the life Jesus paid for? Let me use a Detroit Motor City analogy. To be a Christian you have to have Christ in your car. Christian has Christ in it. If you are a Christian and Christ is in your car, where is He sitting? Is He in the trunk? Do you let Him out when you get to church and say “Come on Jesus. Let’s go in to church for religious happy hour? Is He in your back seat? Maybe He is your companion in the front passenger seat? There are some who have given Him the driver's seat. So, if He’s in the driver's seat let me ask you, are you a back seat driver? When He wants to turn down the road of forgiveness or generosity, do you tell Him to turn the other way? When you let Jesus drive, you will see the fruit of His spirit begin to develop in your life - love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. He paid for you to have life and to have it more abundantly. Give Him the driver’s seat. Let Him take you wherever He wants to go. We are Easter Christian’s living in a Good Friday world, but Sunday's coming! Jesus can restore situations in your life. He can make beauty from ash. Do you need to reposition Jesus in your car? Or do you need to ask Jesus to climb into the car for the first time? Take possession of all God has for you today. Clear the way for God to have control in your life. Know the truth and the truth will set you free. Life goes better when you put God first.

Happy Easter!

I have been doing a series “Make That Break That” about habits that we need to develop and habits that we need to get rid of in order to live with unlimited possibilities. One of the bad habits we should break is being selfish and self-centered, and the best way to do that is to form the habit of being generous.   

I learned a long time ago that generosity is the cure for greed. Generosity makes one’s soul truly beautiful. God is generous and all those who wish to be like him must learn to be generous. I once heard someone say that when we give, we are more like God than at any other time.  

You know when something is a habit when you actually miss it if you’re not doing it. We can and should form a habit of being generous. That means that we must choose to do more than we would have to do and always do as much as we possibly can. We should never be the type of person who only does what they absolutely have to. Some even do this little and still murmur and complain. 

We should give generously with no expectation of the person returning the favor. Now, God promised to bless and reward the generous person so we expectGod to fulfill His promise. But we do not look to collect from the person we give to. We lean on God to take care of that. 

I don’t believe we are truly generous unless we do what we do with a willing heart. Giving may begin as a discipline, but it should develop into a desire. We can learn to give for the sheer joy we find in doing it.

A spirit of generosity causes a person to give even when it seems unreasonable to do so. The Apostle Paul speaks of the generosity of the church of Macedonia in 2 Corinthians 8:2-3. Just reading about these people makes me admire them and want to be like them. We are drawn to generous people and we instinctively don’t want to be in the presence of stingy people for very long. Greed causes a person to never be satisfied or appreciative for very long no matter how much they have. Greed steals the life of the greedy person because he can never be content. 

God has either created, or given us the ability to create, many beautiful and needful things and I believe he wants his children to enjoy them. But he wants us to enjoy them with the right attitude. That attitude should be one of gratitude, contentment and a willingness to be generous to others. I try not to have anything in my life that I would not give away if God asked me to. If something is hard to give away it has mastered me instead of me mastering it.   

So the best way I know to fight against the bad habit of greed is to develop a good habit of generosity. God‘s word instructs us to not even associate with anyone who is known to be guilty of greed. Why would He say that? I believe it is because greed is a wicked spirit and God doesn’t want us to be affected by it. God wants us to grow in generosity not in greed. If you want to be a generous person, make friends with other generous people. Watch how they live and learn from their example

Now people who are not in the habit of being generous may have to force themselves to be generous for a period of time, but I can assure you that after a while they will become addicted to it. There is nothing more fun to do with money than give it away.Money is like manure … spread it around and it does good but store it up and it starts to stink.Make a decision to be more of a blessing to others and start looking for opportunities to be generous. Learn to be generous and teach it to other people. 

Let me quickly dispel a misunderstanding. You can be a tither and still be stingy. I have known people like this. They understood the principle of tithing, but it wasn’t in their heart to give… and they never had abundance. Another myth to put down,you do not have to have a lot of money to be generous.Generosity can be practiced no matter how much or how little you have. If you share what you have with others, you are a generous person. 

Be a conduit. Allow good things to flow out from you to others. Be a river, not a pond. When blessings flow to you, that is the time to press in and be a blessing to others more than ever. Commit to generosity, no matter what.Do you possess your possessions or do your possessions possess you? Are you able to use what you have to be a blessing? God is a giver and if we want to enjoy life and fulfill our purpose, then we must become givers also.

If you know in your heart that you’re not a generous person don’t feel guilty… But start today by developing a habit of being generous.Let me make it practical for you. Make a plan. Every day think about people you can bless and then what way you can bless them. The more you think of others, the less time you will have to be concentrating on yourself and your own problems. I’ve discovered over the years… the less I think about myself the happier I am.

If you don’t know what the person needs then begin listening to them and it won’t be long before you will hear them mention something they are lacking. They may need encouragement. They may need help with something. Maybe you have something they could use. There are always people who are desperately in need or maybe would be blessed mightily by something we own but don’t use. My motto is use it or lose it. Bonus: Never  sell when you’re in a position to sow. Give it away and let God take care of you.

Ask God to show you ways that you can bless people. The more generous you become the more you will be blessed in your own life. Proverbs says the world of the generous gets larger and larger. We cannot outgive God. He said if we give it will come back to us, pressed down, shaken together, and overflowing (Luke 6:38).

Generosity is not only giving ourselves, our money, our things. It also involves how we treat people. Generous spirited people will be patient with the weaknesses of others. They are quick to forgive and slow to get angry.

We are creatures of habit, but bad habits can be broken and replaced with good habits. We can form the habit of being a generous person who continually reaches out to others to make their lives better. By doing so, the bad habits we previously had will find no place to live.