“He hath dispersed abroad ; he hath given to the poor: his righteousness remaineth for ever” (2 Cor. 9:9).
All we have is the gift of God. In return He asks only for what He gave us. God is generous and gracious. We can never experience the reality of God’s gifts to us until we give everything to Him in return. We live without fear and anxiety in the presence of such a God who has given us everything. What great things He bestows upon us everyday, things that we can never exhaust. We have a great inheritance in Christ. We are the sole heirs of the world. A generous loving spirit tends to make us great. It causes us to forget our sorrows, to banish our weariness, to overcome our indifference to life, to fill our days with Christian romance. The possibilites for living are infinite.
Nowhere does generosity more excel than in the Christian church. We are filled with the desire to give because God has given to us the unspeakable gift of His Son. We come to see that all gifts are of God, and therefore there is no room for greed. Christ who came into the world became poor, that we through His pov-erty might be rich. Christ gave us everything, including His very life.
The wealth we have in Christ forbids that we should envy anyone. “All are your’s; and ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s” (1 Cor. 3:22, 23). The spirit of generosity can only enhance the good and happiness of everyone. Whatever may be our economic state, we can be a blessing to all concerned. The more our generosity is expressed, the more God’s gifts to us are magnified. Everything concerning us is touched by the generosity of God. Christ’s intention is to make us incomprehensibly wealthy.
Since God has been so magnificent in His generosity to us, how can we fail to abound toward our brother? We must drink in Christ’s spirit and follow in His footsteps. Christ creates in us loving, unselfish heart. Out of this coarse clay of sinful man, He makes the greatest givers in the world. Life is found friendship, love, compassion for all men, none of which money can buy.
Edward Heppenstall
In touch with God, p. 243
