A Three Step Journey to GenerosityEsimerkki

Day 1 - Source

What if before bed tonight, you could take one simple step and become more like Jesus?  Interested?  As you begin this journey towards generosity, close your eyes and imagine two hands wide open with palms facing to the sky.  This is a picture of the destination, to become the kind of person who lives with open hands and gives to impact God’s kingdom. If you're like many people on the planet, that image stirs up fear, but fear doesn’t have to be reality.  Using this plan over time, you can become more and more like the generous God who knew you before time.

When I was younger, I had a deep appreciation and love for chocolate chip cookies.  In fact, I used to keep a bowl of cookie dough in the refrigerator . . . until I noticed others in the house were willing to help themselves while I was away.  My solution wasn’t to be thankful that I could share, but to literally put the bowl of cookie dough under lock and key in the refrigerator.  I wanted to hang on to my precious cookie dough at all costs.  I had a scarcity mindset and thought that if others had more, I had less—not one of my finer moments.

When it comes to giving, God wants something greater for you, not to take something away from you. So, one of the first things to do is shift your mentality away from scarcity (focusing on what you give up) to a place of abundance (focusing on what you gain).  How?  Did you know that Paul, in one of his letters to the Corinthians, reveals that the origin of resources isn’t people, but God?  That means instead of worrying about how much you won’t have when you give, you are simply managing the resources that He trusts you to manage. In other words, He promises to give resources to you and your job is to meet your own needs and then share with others.

Over the next five days, you’ll fly above your current situation and see a vision for taking three steps towards living a life of generosity with your hands wide open. Open your eyes to the possibility of being an agent of change by stepping into who God designed you to be.  Think about this, God is a giver (John 3:16), you are created in His image (Ephesians 2:10 and Genesis 1:26), and He provides the financial resources that fuel your generosity (2 Corinthians 9:11).  God has removed the risk by creating you to be generous and then provides you with what you need to share.  He’s thought of everything.

Question:  When you think about becoming a generous person living with hands wide open, what specific fears does that image stir?

Give it a Try:  In the first sentence, you were asked if you would be interested in becoming more like Jesus today.  As you begin the journey, what is one item you own that you don’t use that you could give away to someone else?  It doesn’t have to be big or extremely valuable.  Make a plan right now to take that item and find a way to bless someone with it before you go to bed tonight.  Congratulations, you just became more like Jesus by being generous.