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All You Need is Love Daily Devotional -16

by David Joynt on April 26, 2021


1 CORINTHIANS13:3 | 3 If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

 MATTHEW 6:1 | 1Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.

 Motivation is part of generosity. Philanthropy can be rooted in a variety of desires. Some gifts are given in order to put others in our debt and so create future leverage. Some acts of generosity root in a desire to be seen as gracious or even as wealthy. Showing off, or striving to impress others, or seeking to control people or organizations through gifts, undermines the acts of generosity.

 On the other hand, true generosity has many worthy motivations. These include seeing injustices overcome, helping others find healing and wholeness, relieving suffering, embodying God’s character, and encouraging faith. The love of God and others underlies all these motivations.

 What drives your generosity?

 

Tags: generosity, drive

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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