The Blessing of Giving

-

Money:  A Tool or a Want

2 Corinthians 9:5-15

“And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed.”

                  What is the hardest thing to surrender to God?  We readily give God the guilt of our sins because he has promised forgiveness.  We continually give God our problems and concerns, for he promises to help us in our time of need.  We even give God our time, for that seems noble, and assisting others always gives us a good feeling that we have benefited someone else life.  However, when asked to give up our money, we clutch our wallets like Scrooge and cry, “Mine!”  Of all the things God asks of us, the hardest thing to give up is our money because we see money as the tool we use to buy our happiness and security in this world.  We are reluctant to give it up.  

                  As Paul writes to the church at Corinth, he commends them for their generosity and sets forth why we give generously to God and His people.  Having commended them for their gifts, Paul reminds them that when we give, we are to give with the right attitude and for the right reasons.  We can give to God and His work because God generously rewards those who do so.  God always desires to give to His children.  When we speak of God’s attributes, we often overlook the generosity that He continually displays.  God delights to give generously and freely to His children.  It is intrinsic in His nature and the expression of His love.  The full expression of His generosity is revealed in our salvation.  He freely gave us the grace to cancel the debt of our worst sin.  That is an immeasurable gift that we cannot even begin to fathom its value.  Even with such a gift, God has given us something even more remarkable.  His extreme generosity not only moved Him to save us from sin, but it also moved Him to provide us with the one gift that is beyond all value and comprehension:  He gave us the gift of being co-heirs with Christ so that we become participants and partakers of all the blessings He shares with His Son.  So incredible is His generosity that we cannot even begin to fathom its value.  We can only gaze with wonder. 

God’s generosity is further bestowed upon us in His care for us.  Paul points out in verse 8 that God generously bestows all grace upon us so that we have everything we need for life.  We need nothing more than what He has already promised and provided.  Because of this generosity, we are to have a different attitude towards our possessions and wealth.  Because we do not need anything more than He has already provided, we can freely give to the needs of others and the ministry of the church.  Wealth is no longer necessary for life, security, and happiness, for God has provided all these things freely to us in His Son.  Therefore, we can use our wealth to bless others and further God’s kingdom.  Instead of seeing our wealth as the vessel for our happiness, we are to see it as a tool to use for God’s glory. We can freely surrender our wealth to God, for He has the assurance that He will care for us. Rather than hoarding in fear,  we can give liberally, for in our liberality, we discover the joy of God’s blessing. This confronts us with the question:  Are we using our wealth for God’s glory and His kingdom's advancement, or are we using it for our pleasures?  To hoard our wealth is to miss out on the blessings God delights giving us.  God blesses us with wealth, not for our pleasure, but that we might use our wealth as a tool for his kingdom (vs. 10). Instead of being a miser, be a giver. Then, you will discover that God will bless you beyond measure, and he will supply your needs (vs. 11-12).

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

When Injustice Reigns

-
When Injustice Reigns Eccl. 8:10-14 “There is futility which is done on the earth, that is, there are righteous men to whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked. On the other hand, there are evil men to whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous. I say that this too is futility.” Traditional wisdom informs us that God blesses the righteous, and the wicked will suffer calamity because of their sin. In Proverbs 10, we find a discourse on the contrast between the righteous and the wicked. Traditional wisdom informs us that “Blessings are on the head of the righteous, but the mouth of the wicked conceals violence. The memory of the righteous is blessed, but the name of the wicked will rot” (Prov. 10:6-8). In the moral order established by God, we obtain blessing and prosperity when we walk in obedience to God, for this is the promise of the law given to Moses (see the blessings and curses of the law in Deut. 28). However, Solomon takes a closer examination o
Read more

A Life of Significance

-
Answering the Call Matthew 10:1-15 “And when you go, preach, saying, ‘The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.’”               What is your goal in life?  At the end of your life, what do you desire to accomplish?  These are no idle questions to ponder and dismiss.  They are the hard questions we need to ask so that our life has genuine purpose and meaning. Tim Kizziar wrote, “Our greatest fear as individuals and as a church should not be the fear of failure, but of succeeding at things in life that don’t really matter.”  Too often, we spend our lives in pursuit of the things that, in the end, are insignificant and temporary rather than meaningful and eternal.             In response to the spiritual needs around them, Jesus sent out his disciples to proclaim the kingdom's message.  In 9:38, he challenges his disciples to pray for workers to be sent into the harvest.  We are to pray for people who are willing to become participants in Christ's redemptive program by proclaiming his mes
Read more

The Prayer God Answers

-
The Prayer that God Loves to Answer Phil. 1:7-11 “And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ; having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.”               When we pray, what is the focus of our requests?  James points out that one of the reasons we are powerless in prayer is because we ask with the wrong motives. Our prayers focus on what we want for our pleasure and happiness rather than spiritual transformation (James 4:3). Effective prayer starts with the proper focus.  This is not to say that God does not desire us to pray about our personal needs.  He invites us to pray about all things and issues in our lives.  However, prayer is not alligning God’s will to us, but our will to his.  Effective prayer aligns our lives with Christ's will
Read more