One Degree to Another
Today I will be speaking to a group of high school students about generosity. Generosity is one of those things that it is easy to guilt people into. You can point out the affluence of Americans compared to the rest of the world or talk about our rampant materialism and the damage that it can cause. Another track is to show people biblical passages where God tells us to give and threaten people that God will curse their finances if they don’t give. (This is way more popular among pastors than it should be.)
There is another angle to take on generosity, and frankly this is the way that the Bible motivates us to obedience in most cases. This is one of the Bible’s central affirmation about who God is. In Exodus, Moses asks that he may see God’s glory. The Lord places Moses in the cleft of the rock and cover his face as God’s glory passes by him. As the Lord passes by Moses, He proclaims about Himself, ““The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” The Lord’s revelation of His gracious character are repeated in part or in full in Numbers, 1 Chronicles, Nehemiah, Psalms, Joel, and Jonah. Jonah quotes this verse as the reason that he did not want to go to Nineveh. He wanted God to wipe out the city and he didn’t want them to repent because he knew that God was gracious and compassionate.
God is gracious and generous. We are His people and our lives should reflect His gracious character so that people may see His character through us. When we hear about being generous people, we typically think of money first. The truth is that there are many ways to be gracious and money is only one of them. Many times, one of the greatest gifts that people can give me is their time to help me with something or to talk to me about something that I am dealing with. They can always make more money, but they will never get back the time that they just gave me. Lending talents or skills to help another person is another form of generosity that helps people immensely.
Should we work on being more generous? Yes, but let us remember why we are called to generosity. God’s Spirit is at work through our generosity pointing to the generous character of our great God.
Related Posts:
“An Appeal for Gracious Tipping”
For Further Reading:
All of Grace by Charles Spurgeon
Money, Possessions, and Eternity by Randy Alcorn
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In