Your Generosity Will Result In

Thanksgiving To God

Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.

This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, others will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

2 Corinthians 9:10-15

Sharing is hard. It is easier to hold onto what we see in front of us. Perhaps we do the calculation and reason there is simply not enough for everyone. And the assumption is that if we give, we will be left wanting.

Paul reminds us that all we have comes from God, who wants to enrich us “in every way so that (we) can be generous.” The math of heaven is not a calculation of scarcity but of abundance. We can share joyfully because God promises to care for us even as we are generous to others.

When we believe God is good, we can learn to open our hands to others.

Our Daily Bread – February 19, 2018