Love Humans

The word, “philanthropy”, comes from two Greek words: philo, meaning love, and anthropos, meaning human.  It literally means to love humans.  We generally think of a philanthropist as someone who gives a lot.

Of course, our Father is the original, and greatest, philanthropist.  He loves every single human so much that He gave His Son.  In doing this, He very freely gave eternal life, righteousness, love, peace, joy, everything that every human needed for life and godliness.  It is absolutely His nature to graciously give to humans, even to those that may seem unworthy of such generosity.  Nevertheless, that is what philanthropy is.  It’s the act of loving human beings, and it is very loving to give to them charitably, based simply on the giver’s ability and generosity.

We have the same nature as our Father.  When we wake up to who we are, we realize that we have the power to give, and therefore do not have to worry about losing, or being dominated.  We find ourselves laying down our fights and even our rights, in order to give to humans.  We come to love them as we realize how rich we really are.

Our riches are not always material, in fact, the best riches we have are those we carry in our heart.  Rather than prove that our opinion is right, we listen.  Listening is a powerful way of giving.  Rather than criticize, we empathize.  We give because we have been blessed with the greatest riches of God’s love, peace, and joy.  We are no longer the needy.  We are the benefactors.  We are not the fighters of humans.  We are the lovers of humans.

“And without question, the person who has the power to give a blessing is greater than the one who is blessed.” – Hebrews 7:7 NLT

Have a great week, a fun week, and a generous week!