What’s In Your Wallet?
This time of year has a way of stretching us, doesn’t it? Our time, energy, relationships, and even our finances can feel pulled thin. And when we’re stretched, what’s really in our hearts often rises to the surface. We’re given countless opportunities to give, but the truth is simple: you can only give what you truly possess—and you can only give as the person you truly are.re
If you are a person who is generous of heart, you will be able to give generously. And Scripture is clear, “God loves a cheerful giver.” (2 Corinthians 9:7) Though you may not be able to give much, your abundant heart will carry the gift – and it will minister joy to others.
But if your mindset is shaped by scarcity—if your heart feels tight, protective, or fearful—then giving can feel more like a loss than a blessing. Proverbs warns us that a stingy heart clouds even good actions. (Proverbs 23:6–7)
So while this is often called a cheerful season, it’s also a revealing one. It exposes the longings, hurts, hopes, and attachments of the heart. It shows whether your relationship with God and others is full and alive—or whether it’s thin and strained. It tests whether you carry a heart of forgiveness or a heart still weighed down by bitterness.
The holidays put long-standing relationships front and center. Sometimes that’s wonderful. Sometimes it’s… complicated. We find ourselves in rooms with people we haven’t seen in ages—some we’re eager to reconnect with, and others we brace ourselves for because old wounds, unresolved tension, or painful histories are still in the air.
But the Gospel brings hope even into the most difficult gatherings. It assures us of complete forgiveness from God, and it empowers us to offer that same forgiveness to those who have hurt us—those who have ignored, used, dishonored, distrusted, dismissed, or wounded us in ways we still feel. Through Christ, we get to proclaim “the year of the Lord’s favor”—His healing, His release, His freedom. (Luke 4:18–19)
That makes this season a powerful moment to practice what we’ve been given.
Forgiveness becomes most real when it’s hardest to extend. And it becomes most liberating when it sinks in deeply—beyond words, beyond duty, into the heart. Scripture warns us not to follow the pattern of the Edomites, who “harbored ancient hostilities” and bore the cost of it. (Ezekiel 35:5) As God’s people, we never have to cling to bitterness, whether in our marriages, families, churches, neighborhoods, or even our nation. God has poured out immeasurable forgiveness on us—more than we could ever repay (Matthew 18:21–35). And He sends us out with that forgiveness as a kind of healing currency to spend generously, wherever we go.
In Christ, your debt has been completely paid. Your spiritual wallet is full. You’ve been handed riches of grace, mercy, and forgiveness that you will never exhaust.
So this season, don’t hoard it. Don’t harbor hostility. Don’t cling to the old wounds that keep your heart small.
Freely you have received—now freely give.
With you,
~ Coach Tom
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