29 May 2016
Have you ever encountered a sales person making a sales pitch so strong that you cannot help but feel convinced and swayed to buy that product or service? I felt the same when I read this long and convincing list of reasons why the Corinthian Christians should be cheerful givers.
Apostle Paul promised a generous harvest if one sows generously. He reminds us that God loves a cheerful giver and will provide abundant blessing as we also give abundantly. Paul brought up the axiom of life that those who gives generously will have righteousness that endures forever. In fact, God will increase our harvest and enlarge our righteousness. He then ends off by reminding the Corinthians of how their love gifts would supply the needs of the people and also cause God’s name to be glorified in the form of thanksgiving to God. Here are the six very compelling promises to be generous!
However, we know that more often than not, reason is insufficient reason to move us into action. Deep down, we may not be fully convicted of these truths and end up giving ourselves excuses to procrastinate our obedience. We believe that being generous is great, but …
- “We are not ready yet – wait till we earn more, have more time, know more before we give more, serve more, share more.”
- “We are already giving in other forms – we give a lot of time in this ministry, we gave a lot of time in our youths, we financially support many poor children overseas.”
- “Generosity is not my gift, so I can’t bear to give up more time, more money or share my resources as much.”
Generosity is the willingness to give more of something, more than usual or necessary. It suggests something out of the norm, out of your comfort zone. I am guilty of all three excuses given above, despite being cognisant of the six truths above. However, I’m thankful that we are never too late to ask our Lord for his help in recognising his owner- ship over each and every of our resource – every second of our time and every cent in our name belongs to him. We are his Asset Managers in charge of multiplying the assets he has blessed us with. I’m challenged to act on surrendering more of my resources onto the Lord, and to receive his multifold blessings that he has promised. To give and to give generously – Will you do the same too?
