Life On MissionSample

I’m on the record for saying this statement many times; “One of the most profound indicators that God is at work is when his people are being radically generous.” The truth is that we can fake so many of the other Christian “stuff.” We can raise our hands at the right part of the song, give a reluctant hug, offer up a cliché prayer and go through the motions. Not so with generosity. By definition, generosity will COST you something. You can’t make that up and you can’t fake it. There is often a literal paper trail to generosity!

One Halloween I was dressed as a robot. It was awesome. I had lights and made robot sounds. We even created a box attached to the front to place all of my candy. Little did I know that my cumbersome costume would slow down my fast paced race for the candy. I usually jumped fences, over bushes and hurdled small children. This costume forced me to walk and take my time. All I could think about was all the candy that I wasn’t able to acquire. I was super disappointed in my costume choice because I was so greedy about getting more candy. Looking back, I should have enjoyed my costume more, but I was blinded by my own greed.

In God’s economy, generosity is blessed and rewarded while being stingy and greedy isn’t. We likely know this in theory, but seldom do we practice this. It sounds counterintuitive to give in order to get. The reality is that as we are generous with our finances and time we don’t necessarily reap more finances or time. However, we will reap freedom from want. Earthly want will consume you and we each have an insatiable desire for more stuff. Generous giving will release the shackles of that want and free you up to live the abundant, unshackled, life that God has for you.

The first step to living a more generous life is to repent of your greed. We all have a little greed in us that rises up from time to time. We’ve all acted in a way that was far from generous. Think about a couple of times where you have been less than generous with your time or your money. Repent of that attitude and behavior.
Spend some time praying about what generosity looks like in your life. Repent of your greed and invite God to give you a strategy to be generous in the future.