Daniel Threlfall asked me this question as a part of an interview that will be published soon at Sharefaith. Here is his question in full, along with my reply.

What are some of the best resources you know of for giving advice, help, and instruction in giving?

Is it superfluous to say the Bible?

We need to start there—and stay there, really, daily—in order to learn and learn again that we don’t have a need for new tools, techniques, and strategies. God doesn’t permit those to penetrate deeply or permanently in the human heart. Instead, we need to become more consciously and deeply aware of the philanthropy God pours into us daily. That gives us the joyful confidence to become philanthropists ourselves.

We give comprehensively because giving is a means of grace by which we come to know him more fully and by which others can catch a glimpse of him through us. For now it’s a dim mirror. But the joy will be that when we see him, we’ll have no difficulty recognizing him from what we were permitted to see.