Generosity
I learned about this word as a young child. My parents were relatively poor in that we had a house and old vehicles. We had food on the table, and clothes on our backs but there were 5 kids and my parents both worked and made a modest living. As a parent, I’ve looked back many times and wondered how they made it work. I remember my Dad being faithful to write his tithe check out each time he got paid. I learned to be generous from my parents. I also learned that the Lord loves a generous heart, because He has one too. He instructed His people to live and give generously to their fellow brothers. He wanted them to care for one another and not take advantage of a poor brother or sister. Check this out…
7 If anyone is poor among your fellow Israelites in any of the towns of the land that the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hard-hearted or tight-fisted towards them. 8 Rather, be open-handed and freely lend them whatever they need.
10 Give generously to them and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to. 11 There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be open-handed towards your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land. (Deuteronomy 15:7-8;10-11 NIV)
I see passages like this revealing the generous heart of God. He has been generous toward me and He expects me to be generous toward others. It’s easier to be generous toward my fellow brother or sister when I think back what it’s like to be in need. I do believe that I also have a responsibility to take good care of the blessing and provision from the Lord so that I can position my self to be generous on His behalf. I don’t want to be generous because it makes Dwayne look good – I want to be generous to make The Lord look good.
I’m so thankful for the Lord’s provision in my life. I’m humbled that He’s used me to be a blessing to others. I end up being more blessed than some of the folks that I set out to bless. The Apostle Paul spoke in the New Testament about the blessing of giving. Check this out…
In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”’ (Acts 20:35 NIV)
Pressing On!
Dwayne