Power of Generosity

Key Scripture:  Remember a stingy planter gets a stingy crop.  A lavish planter gets a lavish crop.  I want each of you to think it over and make up your own mind what you will give…God loves it when the giver delights in the giving.” II Corinthians 9:8, The Message

Power Point:

As we near the beginning of the Christmas Holidays, the Lord is stirring something new and fresh in my heart.  I want to stir it up in you too, because it’s so good. Have you ever heard of a “poverty mentality”? It is when you have a habit of thinking from a place of lack. You are always worried that there won’t be “enough” (whatever “enough” is) and you make your decisions based on the “small that you see” instead of the “large” that is available to you as God’s child. In other words, you become a “stingy planter”.  When you do that, you get a “stingy crop”. Stingy means you are not generous in using, giving, or spending. I know there have been many times when the Lord has whispered in my ear that I should give some money to someone, or perhaps even some time, or something that I have that they need and I stop for a moment and think about how that affects little old me.  Will I have enough left if I do that? Will it lead to me offering too much of myself? Ah, yes, the old, ‘it’s all about me” thing. Ugly isn’t it?

The root of that is that we really believe deep inside that God won’t provide us with what we need. We may come up short and then where will we be? What a horrible way to live. Stinginess makes for a stingy life. According to this verse, we do reap what we sow, in the manner in which we sow it.

What if you kicked that poverty mentality right out the door? What if you asked God to show you some “hidden riches” that you could begin to sow in other people’s lives? What if you broke down the walls of “thinking small” and begin to explore the land of “thinking larger”-you know, the Land of Promises. 

The very next verse says:

God can pour on the blessings in astonishing ways so that you’re ready for anything and everything, more than just ready to do what needs to be done.

He throws caution to the winds,

Giving to the needy, in reckless abandon

His right-living, right-giving ways

Never run out, never wear out.

That’s His goal for us too Beloved. Begin to pour out His blessings in astonishing ways so that someone else sees Jesus in you.

Power Thought:

Thinking “small” leads to a “small” life. It just does. God thinks “BIG”! So should we, don’t you think?