There’s a fundamental difference between receiving and taking. A receiver is someone who accepts something that has been freely offered. A taker is someone who claims possession of something that doesn’t belong to them nor was it freely offered to them.
The first couple of years I lived in New York City, God put me in situations where I had to learn how to accept people’s offerings with His grace. I had grown up on the tough lesson that no one could be trusted with my well-being. So I sought for many years (teens and twenties) to become more independent and self-sufficient. As I entered my thirties, I stopped asking people for help because no one had ever really shown up for me. It’s a sobering thought that was enflamed by self-pity. Gratefully, in more recent years, as my faith has strengthened through testing, my spirit has rested in the assurance that all my needs are met and my God is sufficient for me.
Perhaps the most difficult and yet the most necessary lesson has been to learn to receive God’s grace. From there, everything truly abounds.