“God loves a cheerful giver.” But we deceive ourselves if we assume that He loves us because we are such cheerful givers by nature. Rather, God loves ungrateful, ungodly sinners like you and me enough to make us cheerful givers. He does so by grace alone through faith in Christ alone.

“Mine! I had it first!” As a father of four young children, I hear these words ring out in my home with unsettling regularity. My children know it grieves their father’s heart to hear them speak to one another this way. They know the Bible teaches them to “be kind to one another” (Eph. 4:32). And they know that “love . . . is not arrogant or rude . . . does not insist on its own way” (1 Cor. 13:4–5). So, why is it so hard for them to live out what they know?

Words are little windows into the heart. Often enough, when I hear the words of my children, I find myself reflecting on my own attitudes toward God. What do my selfishness and my ingratitude look like to the One who gave His only begotten Son as a ransom for my sin? What does my unwillingness to give freely of my worldly treasures say about my love (or lack of love) for the One who first loved me?

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