Let me begin by saying I have always considered myself a generous person.
I consistently tithe and give above that at church. It’s not even really a question for me.
My parents taught me early on that giving to the Lord is an act of faith and that you can never out-give God. They also modeled a life of generosity and encouraged me to do the same. As you will soon see, I don’t say this in a prideful way, but in an effort to show what I believed and how my view of myself has changed.
With that being said, I realized a hard truth about myself when I quit my job and came on the Race. Namely, it was easy for me to be generous when I felt like all my needs were being met and knew that I had a job which meant a steady income.
Living on less and knowing that there is no money coming in makes that harder.
And harder than giving when I don’t have a steady stream of income is acknowledging the fact that I wasn’t relying on God when I gave out of my abundance, like the rich that Jesus observed (Mark 12, Luke 21). I thanked him for providing my job(s) and money for me to live on, but I wasn’t consistently walking in trust for him to provide because it didn’t seem necessary.
Here I am in month 7 of the Race, and I have had to face the fact that knowing there is only so much money in the bank back home without any more being added to it has led me to be stingy with what I have. There were moments on my team when I saw others giving, even small things, that I know I wouldn’t have given because I was so worried about not having enough for myself.
I was not living by faith, but instead allowing fear to keep me from being generous.
I have been reminded since then that God does not ask anything of us that he doesn’t also offer the power to walk out. I have been taught that God’s grace, more than just unmerited favor, is his power to be who we can’t be on our own and do what we can’t do on our own.
I need God’s grace to be generous and to give.
In 2 Corinthians 8, Paul writes to the church encouraging them to give generously, and he begins this discussion by talking about grace. He tells the Corinthians about the churches in Macedonia that “overflowed in a wealth of generosity” out of “their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty” (vs. 2, emphasis added). He goes onto say that they gave according to their means and beyond, begging for the chance to take part in the relief of their brothers and sisters in Christ (vs. 4).
That’s right! People who were living in extreme poverty were begging for the opportunity to be able to give. What a backwards, yet powerful statement!
It isn’t natural (in our sinful human nature), but it is for those of us who have received a new nature. It was an act of grace, as Paul explains in verse 6. God was empowering them to give, even in their lack.
I believe in this they also came to an understanding of what Paul goes on to explain when he says in chapter 9, still in the context of giving, that “God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work” (vs. 8).
When we give cheerfully, not reluctantly, God is able to make ALL GRACE abound to us!
He does this so we might be sufficiently supplied with all things, at all times, that way we won’t be worried about those things and instead can operate abundantly in the good works he calls us to.
God’s kingdom does not operate like the world. It is when we give that we receive, not just our needs being met, but we receive God’s power in every area of our lives.
I believe God has been teaching me that giving is a powerful key in receiving grace. Because grace is power. And in order for God to trust us with His power in our lives, He first wants to know that we have his heart to give, and bless others.
I can’t say that it has miraculously become easier for me to give, but as I have come to better understand this principle of God’s kingdom, I am quicker to obey when I sense God asking me to give. Knowing what I now know about the power that opens me up to, I can do so with more joy.
I still long to be like the Macedonian churches that begged for opportunity to give. I believe that as I grow in what it means to serve a God who didn’t withhold even his only Son from us, the new natural will be to give.
