Recently I have been thinking and praying through the expression of generosity. When it comes to generosity, there are many terms that we use and ways we can be generous. When we give of our time, our talents or our resources, without expectation, we are practicing some form of generosity.
Or are we? Have you really taken time to consider what generosity should look like in your life? What does it mean to you, to give of your time, talents and resources to God and his church?
Real generosity usually requires passion and priority. If we are passionate about something, we tend to support it with great joy and enthusiasms. And, if we are operating in a place of passion, we make that experience or action a priority in our lives. Are you generous with what you give to him? Or are you holding back? What will it take for the church to release generous disciples of Christ today?
A seasoned pastor once asked a group of us new pastors an important question of generosity and it took me a long to process it. They said: “What would happen if Christians would shift this culture of greed in which we live to become a culture of generosity? To the point where people would say, ‘those people are Christian because of their generosity.’”
John Wesley himself taught that as a Christian’s income increases, that it is not our standard of living, but our standard of giving that should increase as well.
When it comes to your time and service, to the use of your talents, and to the sharing of your resources – are you living a generous life? Psalm 24:1 says: “The earth is the Lord’s, and all it contains, the world, and those who dwell in it.” We belong to God and we are but stewards of the time, the talents and the resources that he has given us, and we are to passionately use what has been given – not letting what we have been given to use, lead and manage us.
We must make a shift in our giving – both as individuals and corporately as the church. I want to invite you to prayerfully consider how you can raise your sights from an earthly perspective on giving, to an eternal perspective on generosity and giving.
C.S Lewis, in “Mere Christianity,” sums it up well: “If you read history, you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. Since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at Heaven and you will get earth ‘thrown in.’ Aim at earth and you will get neither.”
May we take seriously our passion and priority for generosity. And may we make generous living our aim. We do not do this in our strength or for our own glory, but rather by God’s love and mighty hand will we be equipped and empowered to empty ourselves in service to others.
May you join in with the work of the Lord today by sharing generously with others those things that bring true and lasting joy. And may you seek to live out a Christ-centered eternal perspective on generous living, making much of Christ and his glorious work on the cross with the shed blood of Jesus Christ, the atonement for our all our sins.
In doing so, in living out a grace-filled, generous life, it will be one of your “greatest achievements” that reflects God faithfully and obediently.
Nick Emery is lead pastor at Hope Crossing Community Church.
