The Next Year of Your MarriageSample

Because God is lavish with His grace, I promise to be generous in loving you.

Have you ever considered the generosity of God? Salvation is the greatest demonstration—the dead receive life, the destitute receive eternal wealth, the sinful receive righteousness—all because God is generous with grace. He lavishes it upon us.

Generosity could not exist without a giver. The need for help, kindness, and benevolence exists in every setting of life—our communities, our churches, our workplaces … and especially in our homes. Without one who is willing to give, generosity would never take place. True generosity is one-sided, coming from the heart of the giver.

It is therefore a great mercy that God is generous, that He acts upon His loving nature rather than making us qualify for grace.

God’s generosity in salvation is illustrated through a parable in Matthew 20. Here a landowner goes to the marketplace one morning to hire some day workers. At 9 a.m. he hires several people who agree to work for the day for a certain amount of pay. At noon he goes back to the marketplace and hires more, and repeats this again at 3 p.m. At the end of the day, each worker is given the same amount of pay, regardless of when they signed on.

The workers who were hired in the morning were livid. How could it be fair to pay those who worked only a few hours the same as those who worked all day? Hear the landowner’s response: “Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?” (verse 15).

Put yourself in the place of a worker hired at 3 p.m. and you begin to get the point. The hours worked had nothing to do with it, only the generosity of the landowner.

Discuss:

How can we show generosity to each other—and to others—through our marriage?

More:

Read the following article at FamilyLife.com:

4 Tips for Giving Grace in Your Marriage by Susan Yates