Are you generous? Do you support your church financially? Churches have real financial needs, and most provide strong encouragement, expectations, or requirements for financial support event down to the percentage of your income. If you support your church financially, do you see that as satisfying your duty to be generous? Does your church giving make you more or less generous to other worthy causes or those in need, or in giving tips to those who serve you? If you have internalized generosity as a value then you can be generous both to your church and to others in need. 

You can’t see me but you know I am with you. I told Peter that he was blessed because he knew I was the Christ and flesh and blood did not reveal this to him but my Father in heaven. Do you think that the same dynamic works with you? You live in a culture that oriented toward structured instruction. How much of what you know did you acquire through conventional instruction and how much did you get by revelation? Can you get everything you need without any direct input from me? Do you describe your faith as a relationship with me? If so, how open are the channels of communication?

Are you familiar with the passage about standing fast in the liberty in which I have made you free? Are you fiercely defensive of your liberty as a result? Are you aware that these words were written in an occupied country, and that neither Paul nor I advocated violently overthrowing the government? That would have been too easy. The corresponding bondage referred to is imposed from within rather than from without. Take yourself as an example. Do you suffer more from externally imposed tyranny, or from fear, bias, prejudice, addictions, and habits?

Do you want to please me? Do you think it is hard to do? Do you know how to do it? You may think this involves doing my will and you are right, but do you know what my will is? Perhaps you are being too hard on yourself. Are you judging yourself by corporate performance standards or by the standards of a father and his children? Which do you think applies in this case? How does this same situation play out with your own children? Isn’t their desire to please you endearing to you whether they execute it perfectly or not? The same dynamic applies with me.