Our Grateful Thanks Setting new goals for our lives is important as we recognize areas that need improvement and ask God’s help in doing just that. I suspect the most common resolution at this time is starting a regime of diet and exercise. I was struck by a recent request for money that said, “As in exercise, there is no gain without pain. So in giving, it will hurt until you become used to it.” While there is a kernel of truth there, Christians give with gladness because they have felt and heard the heartbeat of God. We share, not gritting our teeth in a “spiritual” exercise, but because we feel God’s grief at the conditions of the lost and helpless. So, I think it is more true to say we give because “they” hurt and realize He has blessed us beyond what any of us has deserved. I am grateful for what God has allowed me to see in India, because it has kept my heart from loving the things of this world too much. Knowing the suffering of our own brothers and sisters in our Christian family, we are more able to fulfill the law of God—which is love.
