Do you know someone who is sacrificially generous, someone who forgoes want, or even need, for the sake of giving? How would you characterize them?
If you consider those who are sacrificially generous, you may notice some common characteristics. Though they may have different backgrounds, incomes, and standards of living, they often share some similarities.
Here are ten of those common characteristics shared by sacrificially generous people:
1. Sacrificially generous people have open hands.
They understand that God owns everything (Psalm 24:1). Everything in their possession is not their possession. Possession does not equal ownership. Just like the servants in the Parable of the Talents, while the servants possessed the talents, the talents were still owned by the master. Because sacrificially generous people understand that God owns everything, they recognize God can do with it as He chooses. So, everything is held with open hands, ready to be used by God.
2. Sacrificially generous people are not entitled.
They recognize that humans are deserving of only one thing—eternal condemnation (Romans 3:23; 6:23). Therefore, anything they have been given beyond eternal condemnation is a gift from God (James 1:3). Sacrificially generous people do not want what they deserve and understand they are entitled to nothing beyond the consequence of sin. (view original article . . . )