Read Matthew 6:21 and Luke 6:38

Emily Dickinson was born in 1830 in the United States and lived alone for most of her life while taking care of her parents. It was not until her death in 1886 when her sister – Lavinia, discovered her treasure of over 1800 poems – that they became public. She wrote about the value of generosity:

“If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain…”

Generosity is a way of living, rather than a moment of giving. Generosity is who you are.  It can be the giving of time, abilities and gifts for the glory of God.

Riley Clemmons sings a meaningful song titled FOR THE GOOD:

“For the good
You work all things together.
For the good (For the good)
For the good (For the good)
Your promise stands forever.
You alone are my greatest hope,
I trust You on the broken road,
You work all things together like only You could.”

Develop a plan for giving. Some organizations try to get you to give by appealing to your feelings. Use your stewardship, your mind and decision-making skills to decide when and where to give.

We can be generous in many ways:

We can be generous with our influence by being a good example to others.

We can be generous by giving a person our total attention when they are speaking to us.

We can be generous with our words by asking questions and investing in the lives of others.

We can be generous with the subjects that we talk about such as spiritual things, and how we show gratitude and respect for others.

Our thoughts, our money, our influence, our time, our words, our actions…we sure can be generous in a lot of ways.

“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” – Matthew 6:21

In the blink of an eye the things that you and I have devoted endless hours into building and improving can be taken from us. We can do everything we can to create a type of security in life, but actually, everything in this life is temporary. So why is it that so many of us Christians often live for this world alone? Where is our treasure? Is generosity in our hearts?

Here is an example of generosity that Jesus gave:

“Just then he looked up and saw the rich people dropping offerings in the collection plate. Then he saw a poor widow put in two pennies. He said, ‘The plain truth is that this widow has given by far the largest offering today. All these others made offerings that they’ll never miss; she gave extravagantly what she couldn’t afford—she gave her all!’”  – Luke 21:1-4

The Bible encourages generosity in Proverbs 22:9, Hebrews 13:16 and many other verses.

Consider generosity for the good!

Tom Weckesser