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Real Devotional 9

by David Joynt on May 09, 2022


JAMES 1:5b | 5b who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you.

Some gifts are given in order to get. There is a quid pro quo attached or implied. My giving is at the same time a getting or at least the creation of an obligation for the one I am blessing.

Some gifts are given in order to manipulate or control, to make someone dependent, or to exert influence on their decision-making. Bribes work this way and so do some parental gifts: “You’d better stay on my good side if you want my support!”

Some gifts are given under compulsion or to impress others, or with a great deal of reluctance, out of a sense of obligation.

God gives freely! His nature is to be the giver of every good and perfect gift.

How and why do you give?

Celebrate the great giver as you pray today.

Tags: give, pray

About the Author
David Joynt

Dave Joynt began his service as a pastor at Valley Presbyterian Church in Paradise Valley, Arizona in September 2014. This meant a move away from the Northeast, where he has a long history, growing up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and then serving congregations in Delaware and New Jersey for a total of 23 years.

Dave was nurtured in a great church in Bethlehem where his parents, Anne and Carey, served as elders. He graduated in classics from Lehigh University where his Father taught, and then from Oxford, where he met his wife Julia. Ordained in 1988, he completed a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1993.

He and Julia have a son, Tristan, and a daughter, Madeleine.

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