“God gives so we can become joyful givers and not just self-absorbed receivers…
Here is roughly how sin works in relation to God the giver. All things are from God and through God, and yet we want to be independent of God, standing on our own two feet, claiming God’s gifts as our own achievement…
Most of us, especially the believers among us, won’t deny God’s existence in order to secure our independence. Instead, we think we can have it both ways. We believe that we can stand on our own two feet, independent of God, and still affirm that God is the creator of everything…
When we assert our independence, when we ascribe to ourselves what comes from God, we wrong God…
We might not feel particularly grateful for what we have because we think that, rather than receiving it, we earned it. And we want to disposed of our hard-earned goods the way we please; they become not so much gifts given to us to enjoy and pass on, but rather exclusive possessions.
Assertion of independence, pride of achievement, sense of entitlement, an absolute right to dispose with our goods—these are the ways in which we live in contradiction to who we actually are in relation to God…
To live in sync with who we truly are means to recognize that we are dependent on God for our very breath and are graced with many good things; it means to be grateful to the giver and attentive to the purpose for which the gifts are given.”
Miroslav Volf in Free of Charge: Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005) 28, 35-36.