A Fruitful Life: Generosity

A Fruitful Life: Generosity

By Apostle Felix

6  Here’s my point. A stingy sower will reap a meager harvest, but the one who sows from a generous spirit will reap an abundant harvest.
7  Let giving flow from your heart, not from a sense of religious duty. Let it spring up freely from the joy of giving—all because God loves hilarious generosity!
8  Yes, God is more than ready to overwhelm you with every form of grace, so that you will have more than enough of everything—every moment and in every way. He will make you overflow with abundance in every good thing you do. 

2 Corinthians 9: 6 – 8

Giving is more than just giving money. It is a demonstration of God’s nature in man. God is not a worshiper. He does not have anyone to worship. There is no being that is above God, whom He can pay homage to. He is the Almighty, and there is no other besides Him. However, God is a giver, and He gives freely. From the beginning, God decided to give to man the earth He Had created. Man, himself is God’s own possession. We all came from God. He is our source and He sustains us by having supplied all that which we will ever need. Giving. which is generosity is who God is. Every generous person is displaying the nature of God. For a believer to claim to be like God, should exemplify a lifestyle of generosity.

3  Everything we could ever need for life and complete devotion to God has already been deposited in us by his divine power. For all this was lavished upon us through the rich experience of knowing him who has called us by name and invited us to come to him through a glorious manifestation of his goodness. 

2 Peter 1: 3

We are partakers of God’s divine nature. God has deposited in us everything you and me will ever need for life and godliness. Every necessary thing to make our lives fruitful has been given to us. Every new born baby is born with the mechanism for reproduction. That newly born baby is expected to grow and at some point marry and begin to procreate. God had already ordained the reproduction system in place. It is now the responsibility of the married couple to do the needful in order to produce. It’s not God’s responsibility. We cannot decide to pray, without engaging in what facilitates procreation and expect a baby. Mary, the mother of Jesus understood the natural process very well.

34  Mary said, “But how could this happen? I am still a virgin!” 

Luke 1: 34

Mary knew that without a seed from a male, conception would be impossible. It takes planting to see an harvest. It is a natural law. Life itself revolves around sowing and reaping.

Apostle Paul spoke to the Corinthian church about the importance of generosity. He gave an example of the Macedonian church that gave out of their poverty. It was a church that gave extravagantly.

1  Beloved ones, we must tell you about the grace God poured out upon the churches of Macedonia.
2  For even during a season of severe difficulty and tremendous suffering, they became even more filled with joy. From the depths of their extreme poverty, super-abundant joy overflowed into an act of extravagant generosity. 

2 Corinthians 8: 1, 2

Generosity is the giving whose motivation is the love of God. The Macedonian church gave because it was overwhelmed with the love of God for the people of God and His church. The generosity Paul talked about in chapters eight and nine had to do with giving money. The Corinthian church was a church that had good deeds and was zealous for God, but it was not a generous church. It was affluent, and yet stingy.

7  You do well and excel in every respect—in unstoppable faith, in powerful preaching, in revelation knowledge, in your passionate devotion, and in sharing the love we have shown to you. So make sure that you also excel in grace-filled generosity. 

2 Corinthians 8: 7

Apostle Paul encouraged the church to excel in the grace of giving as well. How is our giving? Probably, you are saying does it really matter. Yes, it does. Stinginess contradicts our real nature. Our real nature is generosity, because we are born of God. And besides, there are benefits to being generous. Generosity is a public divorce of covetousness and selfishness. Generosity is loud declaration that your trust is in God and not money. Generosity has a language, and the language is TRUST. Jesus warned us about the possibility of trying to serve both God and mammon.

24  “How could you worship two gods at the same time? You will have to hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You can’t worship the true God while enslaved to the god of money!” 

Matthew 6: 24

Generosity also proves your faithfulness to God regarding the resources the Lord has given to you. Faithfulness is in the equation of multiplication. Faithfulness is a seed. It is a seed that comes with multiplication. Jesus said that when you are faithful with little, He shall entrust much in your care.

17  And he said unto him, Well, thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities. 

Luke 19: 17

Paul addressed the seed of faithfulness in this manner:

6  Here’s my point. A stingy sower will reap a meager harvest, but the one who sows from a generous spirit will reap an abundant harvest.
7  Let giving flow from your heart, not from a sense of religious duty. Let it spring up freely from the joy of giving—all because God loves hilarious generosity! 

2 Corinthians 9: 6, 7

Generosity should not be seen as just giving money, but as been faithful to the Lord with the resources the Lord has given you. The joy of giving is the realization that God has entrusted you with resources that you can give for the extension of His kingdom. Certainly, there shall be an harvest in honor of His word.