When you were saved, the God that saved you, placed within you a spiritual gift. “God has given each of us the ability to do certain things well.” (Rom. 12:6 LB)

That spiritual gift presently may be lying dormant in your life, but that doesn’t change the fact that within you, God has placed a divine gift.  Someday, when this life is over, you will be called into account as to how you have used that gift for the glory of God, or how you have neglected it.  Even if you never discover, use, or even abuse your spiritual gift, that doesn’t change the fact that some day on the calendar of Holy God, you will give account to the Lord. Romans 14:12 is clear, “So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.”   The accounting day before Holy God is not designed to scold you, but rather to bless you for all of eternity. But the sobering issue will be, what did you do with your spiritual gifts?

Each of us has a motivational gift that God has given us. That motivational gift is what moves us to make a difference in this world, and be rewarded for at a later point in time.  Paul declares, in Romans 12:8, that there are those in whom God has placed the “gift of giving”.

But what are the character traits of a person who has this motivational gift?  Matthew serves as the best example of giving, of all the writers in the New Testament.  Though Matthew was a tax collector, God brought him to understand the divine dimension of giving.  Because of that Matthew wrote more about “giving” than any other gospel writer.

Matthew may well have had more money than others, and desired to give it away, after coming to a personal relationship with Christ.  One thing is for sure, Matthew came to view money as from God.

He spoke of giving in more realms that simply financial. In writing about giving, he spoke plainly and clearly about finances, for who knew better than Matthew, a tax collector in his day about money.  But what are the traits of person with the “gift of giving”?