40acts: Ready to ActSample

Act 2: Hands In

It’s time to roll up your sleeves and get stuck in to situations that need your help. Overflowing bins? Empty toilet roll on the holder? Don’t think twice, just sort it. Easy fixes are good practice, but if the task takes you out of your comfort zone, even better. 

We barely know our own capacity for generosity. We don’t recognise what we’re capable of, or the full extent of what our helpful acts or kind smiles can actually do for people. But the Bible is far more optimistic about our capacity for giving than we are. God tells us our impact is bigger than we could ever imagine: that when we give, we ‘will be sons of the Most High’ (Luke 6:35), and our ‘light will shine out from the darkness, and the darkness around [us] will be as bright as noon’ (Isaiah 58:10). When we act in kindness, we are ‘sons of the Most High’ – we become like the Most High in how we act. And as we do, he partners with us and comes alongside our generosity. Even more, ‘[our] reward will be great’ – we receive the blessing, too (Luke 6:35). 

What is the best way to start moving in generosity that sounds and looks like that? Try a generous act that you would usually avoid doing. The act of trying helps you realise you have way more to give than you think you do. 

Galatians 6:10 talks about taking every opportunity we can take to do good to anyone and everyone. This does two things for us: it helps us realise that opportunities to serve others are all around, and it helps us see that we have more, far more, to offer the world than we think. Surprise yourself with your capacity for impacting the world around you, then ask the Lord to begin an unstoppable wave of his generosity in your life.