Devotions this week based on the Message: “BELIEVE: Week 18: Offer My Time”
(NOTE: This sermon series and devotional series is based on a book by Randy Frazee entitled, “BELIEVE.”
You may choose to download or purchase the book as a supplement to your worship and devotional emails.)
Are you a generous person?
I’d like to think so, but honestly I struggle to be so.
In a profession that not only demands, but requires an “others’ focus” I have to admit, I can become selfish with my time and my resources. Perhaps you are the same.
Every follower of Christ knows that the call to follow is a large commitment. These past weeks we have realized that as Christ calls us to total surrender, giving of our time and talents, and offering ourselves as living sacrifices to the Lord.
So giving of our resources falls in line with that. It is easy to commit to on paper, but hard to follow through.
Our key verse this week is 2 Corinthians 8:7, “Since you excel in everything – in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in the love we have kindled in you—see that you also excel in the grace of giving.”
Paul commends the Corinthians for many aspects of their life of faith. The Spirit of God had led them to trust Jesus as their Savior, molded their speech to praise and not curse, increased their knowledge of God and his plan for them, developed a earnest and deep love for one another…
Now it was time to add to this character of faith: the grace of giving.
This phrase in the original language has the ideas of “grace oriented activity.” It has the same root as the word “grace.” Which tells us something about generosity. True generosity can only happen as it originates from the reality of God’s grace.
Generosity isn’t an amount, it is an attitude of the heart.
Like so many other aspects of the Christian faith, the activity is secondary to the heart. God loves to mold our hearts into his likeness and way of being. When the heart of God becomes the heart of the believer, the godly activity naturally follows.
I will always struggle with generosity if the generosity of God’s grace doesn’t root deeply in my heart.
The Apostle Paul reminds the Corinthians and us:
2 Corinthians 8:9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.
Jesus let go of the riches of heaven for a while to live in poverty on this earth. Yet in his life of “giving up” he made all of us the richest people in the world. He gave us what money could never buy, but only his blood could purchase: Forgiveness, new life and salvation.
This gift of grace is at the heart of generosity. Always has…always will be.
Apply: What happens to your spirit of generosity when you start with the generosity of grace that God has given to you?
Prayer: Lord, thank you for giving us a treasure far more valuable than any we have on this earth. Let your gift of grace lead our hearts to a life of generosity! AMEN
Tomorrow…what makes generosity so hard…