God is generous!
God is very generous!
Generosity is one of His characteristics. It’s as much a part of Him as is Love and Truth. Holiness and Righteousness cannot exist without Love, Truth, AND Generosity.
Grace would be of no help, could not assist a soul, without Generosity. For Grace is “God’s willingness to use His power and ability to help those who need His assistance, but can’t earn it.”
If God wasn’t generous, this world would not exist as we know it, for all of creation was designed by God to give, to help, to build. Even the sun, moon and stars give. The earth, clouds, trees, etc., all give. While not all things are physically able to give immediately after being created (such as plants and people), all creation is designed to give into the big picture – God’s Creation.
God has built that same characteristic into His New Creation; those who have been created in Christ Jesus by virtue of the new birth. (2 Cor. 5:17)
As born again children of God, we were created to be generous, to be givers. In fact, to be the opposite- stingy, cheap, and selfish, is to not allow God’s new nature to grow and develop in our life.
Remember the “Fruit of the Spirit” as mentioned in Galatians 5:22,23? “…the fruit of the Spirit IS…”, singular. Then there are 9 qualities or attributes mentioned. But grouped together they are one. Generosity, in my opinion, is evident in all 9. Remove generosity from love, or joy, or peace, or…how could any one of those attributes do anything? Why, they wouldn’t, couldn’t, be shared.
You see, love has to be shared. Joy has to be enjoyed by others, or what’s the use?
Here are a few scriptures that will help us understand generosity a little better.
“The generous will prosper; those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed.” (Proverbs 11:25 NLT)
In other words, the generous, benevolent person will prosper, be anointed with the same anointing that breaks yokes of bondage. The Hebrew word for “rich” is translated “fat” and means specifically “anointed” or “to be made fat”. It also means “satisfied” and “satiated”. The word “refresh” is also translated “waters” and carries with it the idea – refresh, fill, satiate, bathe entirely, inundate others with generosity. So the generous one, the one who pours into another life to refresh it, make it fat (anoint), bathe it entirely, satiate it, will themselves be targeted, aimed at for God’s blessing and favor. They will grow fat with the anointing of God, becoming more fruitful and generous with each growing season.
“As a man sows, that’s how he’ll reap.” Galatians 6:7
We live on what we reap, not what we sow. A farmer does not go to his barn, grab his seed, take it to his kitchen and start eating it. Seeds are designed to produce after their kind, and much more than was planted, but they must be “given away”, or planted. The end result of planting will be more to eat and more to plant.
2 Corinthians 9:10 says, “now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness.” NLT
Notice this: there is something called “seed” and something else called “bread”. We need to know the difference. You plant seed and eat bread, not the other way around. Everyone has something they can and should use for seed, and something else for bread. Seed is for others, bread is for yourself. Plant the bread and eat the seed…well, you won’t last long. But follow God’s principles of generosity, you will always have enough and more besides.
I’ll say it again. EVERYONE has seed and bread. You may be as “poor as Job’s turkey”, but you have seed to sow. If you are alive you have something to give! It may not be money, but money isn’t the most valuable commodity on earth. It might be time, a loving gesture, or a number of other things. A stingy heart will take inventory of the seed and give the least amount, that which is easily replaced, won’t be missed, not worth much, etc. The generous soul will assess the need then inventory his seed and determine if there is seed to meet the need. But everyone has seed.
People really get hung up on the subject of “the tithe”. But I’ve never met an Oak tree that was concerned about how many acorns it scattered. Was it 5%, 7% or 10%. Ridiculous, huh? So why would someone like us, especially someone who has received Eternal Life, be so stingy with what we have? Could it be we don’t understand His Grace or just how generous He is? Or, maybe we don’t trust Him to do what He promised?
Proverbs 3:9,10 (paraphrased) -“honor God by what you have, and what you get. Declare His value, His worth, to you through generosity. Do that, and He will make sure you will always have more than enough for any and every situation.”
The Spirit of Generosity is within each child of God. It’s up to them to recognize it, yield to it, and nurture it until it begins to grow. Tithing is a good discipline to help a person get started in living a life of generosity. But it is not an end in itself. In fact, a person could tithe and still not be generous.
Lives will be transformed, miracles will take place, through the lives of generous people. (see Acts 4)
Don’t go through life close-fisted. Close-fisted people are in no position to help or be helped.
Instead, emulate the character of your Heavenly Father, the One Who created us for generosity. Generously.
Jan Grace 