Life is Better for Those Who Give

It is more blessed to give than to receive—not just spiritually, but biologically.

Studies from the University of Notre Dame found that generous people are happier and healthier. MRI scans show that giving activates the brain’s reward system and releases serotonin, dopamine, and oxytocin—all chemicals associated with joy and trust.

Jesus said, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21). Giving recalibrates our hearts. It teaches us that life is not about accumulation but participation in God’s work in the world.

Life Is Better for Disciples

We’ve been sold a lie that following Jesus is a grim duty, a restrictive life, a list of “don’ts.” But the real cost is not discipleship—it’s non-discipleship.

Willard famously wrote:

“Non-discipleship costs abiding peace, a life penetrated throughout by love, faith that sees everything in the light of God’s overriding governance for good, hopefulness that stands firm in the most discouraging of circumstances... In short, it costs exactly that abundance of life Jesus said he came to bring.”

Discipleship is not a sacrifice of the good life. It’s the doorway into it.

To follow Jesus is to enter a new kind of existence—one where peace isn’t dependent on circumstances, where joy runs deeper than emotion, where purpose outlasts productivity, and where love rewires us from the inside out. Why don’t we do it? Well, it is work. It is hard. Putting on Jesus’s easy yoke is hard:

Grace is opposed to earning, not to effort. And it is well-directed, decisive, and sustained effort that is the key to the keys of the Kingdom and to the life of restful power in ministry and life that those keys open to us.[1]

It’s not always easy. But it’s always better.