Be Generous

2 Corinthians 9:10-11
For God is the one who provides seed for the farmer and then bread to eat. In the same way, he will provide and increase your resources and then produce a great harvest of generosity in you. Yes, you will be enriched in every way so that you can always be generous. (NLT)

He reminds us here of the fact that God is the one that provides. God has made the opportunities available to us to have the jobs we have. He is the one who makes it possible for us to put bread on the table, purchase that new wide screen television, get that SUV, go to the movies, have cable, put cell phones in every family member's pocket, and more.

Being generous is about being willing to give money, help, or time freely.

All God wants in return is for us to be generous with what we have been given. He wants us to give out of our abundance. The hard thing for most of us is to identify our abundance. We look around and do not see all that we have as abundance. We need the cell phone, the new car, the swimming pool, the vacation to a far off place, and so forth. We worked hard and earned it. There is no abundance to give away!

Find a local food pantry or homeless shelter. Help feed some of those who go without. Get to talk to them and you will find what little we really need to live and be happy. Anything past a roof over our head, food on the table, and clean clothes is abundance.

Sure we need a vehicle to get around; especially to get to our place of work. The TV with the full cable package? The vacation to Europe? The full featured cell phone? These are things we want that are not necessary for our happiness.

Do not get me wrong. These things are not bad, they are just extras. We must not let our wants for these things overshadow our giving to others. And as we are generous with what God has given to us, He will increase our opportunities and show us more places where we can be generous to others.