“Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full — pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.” Luke 6.38
Generosity does not come naturally to me. I’m stingy. I want to be generous but find myself tight-fisted, hoarding the gifts God has given me. I know I need a change of heart, so I made a simple promise: if God points out a need, I’ll give. Just a few days after I made that promise God gave me an opportunity to practice.
I was standing in line at the grocery store and a woman in front of me was struggling to use her bridge card. (A bridge card is similar to food stamps.) I felt God prompting me to buy her groceries and I’m ashamed to admit what happened next. I stood in line and did battle with God. The argument seemed to stretch on for hours but in reality it was only a minute until I finally decided to obey.
As I turned to walk out of the store, the joy I felt took my breath away! My gift came back to me pressed down, shaken together, and running over.
How selfish our hearts can be. What joys we miss out on when we allow stinginess to invade our souls. Why do we quibble over a few measly dollars when our Heavenly Father has given us a gift that all the words in the world cannot describe?
Jesus says our gifts of generosity have a way of coming back to us like a boomerang. The return on our investment is directly related to how much we give. Give lavishly and you’ll receive lavishly. For every believer, generosity is supposed to be a way of life, not a seasonal practice.
The miracle of generosity is that we get so much more than we give.
Lord, we confess we are a tight-fisted, stingy people. Your love was meant to be shared but instead we hoard Your love and refuse to share. And our hearts grow smaller because of it. We want Your love filling our lives and spilling over into others. We want to be Your generous people. We can’t do this on our own. Teach us how. Amen.
TAKE ACTION
Evaluate where you are stingy. Is it with your money? Time? Relationships? Work? Confess your sin. What’s one thing you can you do to begin living more generously?