A cheerful giver’s guide: 5 resources and a challenge to align your heart
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by Eric Most
Do you experience joy when you give? The apostle Paul writes, “God loves a cheerful giveropens in a new tab,” but perhaps you find that your generosity is born out of obligation or even guilt. As we begin a new year, I’d like to offer a few resources and one challenge for you to consider that could help you realign your heart to your giving:
1. The Treasure Principle by Randy Alcorn
This timeless staple about unlocking joy through generosity centers around Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 6opens in a new tab. The book outlines countercultural keys for Christian giving and provides questions to prayerfully ask God about your attitude toward money. Whether you have a well-worn copy or have never read it, this is a great read to start the new year.
2. 10 days of biblical generosity devotionalopens in a new tab by NCF
Set aside time for the next 10 days of guided prayers and reflections on the principles of generosity. This could be a great addition to an existing devotion you may be doing or something that you could go through as you consider your 2025 giving priorities.
3. The Generosity NOW Podcastopens in a new tab episode “The intersection of wealth and contentmentopens in a new tab,” featuring Rachel McDonough
One of our earliest and most popular episodes, wealth advisor Rachel McDonough shares how growing wealth affects dependency on God and outlines the importance of investing for kingdom work.
4. NCF’s Causes and Passionsopens in a new tab guide
Taken from our NCF Giving Strategy™, this guide includes exercises and prayer to help you discover if your giving supports the causes on your heart. I recently hosted a Journey of Generosity (JOG), and several couples in attendance shared how they sought not only to be faithful stewards, but also to ensure that the organizations they support faithfully steward their gifts. This guide asks you to more deeply consider all aspects of your cause-based giving.
5. Gospel Patrons by John Rinehart
In this, another favorite of mine, Rinehart asks you to become a “gospel patron” by being open to the Holy Spirit’s promptings to find where God is calling you to be generous. Many of us give widely to a variety of causes, but Rinehart challenges that view by asking you to seek out opportunities to give deeply in a specific area.
Challenge: Prayerfully consider if God is calling you to make your single-largest gift this year.
I offer this challenge after my wife and I experienced immense joy last year doing this ourselves. Our oldest son joined our family through adoption after being born with bilateral cleft lip and palate, which has given us a deep compassion for children with this diagnosis. Previously, we had supported an organization that offers cleft lip treatment, and, in 2024, we prayerfully considered an opportunity to make a significant grant to help many other children facing the same condition.
To say yes to this required us to evaluate not just our finances but our hearts. It was an act of faith to make such a gift, and we could not have been more cheerfuopens in a new tablopens in a new tab doing so.