Daily Devotions based on the Sermon Series: “Timely Teaching for Turbulent Times”
Week 5 of 6: “The Impact of Generosity!”
Full Sunday message: CONTEMPORARY or TRADITIONAL
THIS WEEK: Impact of Generosity
“But it’s not fair!”
How many times have you used this phrase in your life? A few? You thought you were punished more than a younger sibling was. You thought you deserved a scholarship but didn’t receive it? You felt there was no one better at the job interview, but weren’t hired? You got blamed for a failure at work that you had little to do with.
It’s not fair.
We all want to be treated fairly. The challenge is that we want to be the determining person as to what is fair or what is not. We often like to determine the rules of “fairness.”
Our desire for fairness can affect our faith-life as well. From our perspective, we may find some incongruences to which we or others may cry “Unfair!” The two most common perhaps resonate with you. “It’s not fair that God would send a good person to hell.” Or “It’s not fair that that evil person can just repent and end up in heaven.”
Again, we become the arbiter of what is fair or not. AND we are judging the situation by the paradigm of “What I do determines what I get.”
God does and doesn’t work that way. Consider Titus 3:4-7.
But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.
If God were to determine the merit of us spending an eternity with him in heaven based on our performance in life, no matter how many good things we have done, we would fall into the category of Romans 3:23, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
It is completely fair that God would send ALL people to hell. NO ONE has achieved the standard of perfection. This would be just.
But notice how God chooses to interact with us: with MERCY and GRACE.
God wants us to know that if he treated us according to the “righteous things we had done” it would never be enough. In fairness, he would have to tell us to depart from him forever.
Yet he chooses to be generous…to treat us unfairly…to show mercy and grace instead of what our sins deserve. A gift of mercy and grace he gives to us by his Holy Spirit “whom he poured out on us generously.”
The result of grace, mercy and God’s generosity? “We might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.” The greatest gift we could ever receive, has been GIVEN to us.
Now that’s generous!
And…honestly…it wasn’t fair.
Apply: Take a moment today to reflect on the generosity God has shown to you. In addition to eternal life what else has he “poured out generously” on you?
Prayer: Lord, thank you for not treating us as our actions deserve, but rather showing your generosity by giving us Jesus and his perfect life to cover all our sins. Allow your generosity to us motivate us to be generous to you and to others. AMEN.