Life is forever busy. Whether it’s a holiday season or tax season or baseball season or following this, that and the other influencers on social media, we always have too much to do and not enough time or energy to do it. With all of this being said, how often do we stop and think about being generous? You know - just giving of our time or resources because we see a need. Built on the question of giving generously is the matter of how to go about it. How do we know what to give, how much to give and when to stop? Is generosity always appropriate? What if there is no appreciation for a gift? Is that an indication that we should focus our giving elsewhere? So many questions! It looks like the subject of freely giving needs some "generous" consideration!
Christian generosity
Many people are moved to be generous because something touches their heart, provoking them to contribute. While this is certainly good and to be encouraged, we need to be clear that Christian generosity is even bigger. Ideally, we want our giving to be modeled after God’s own principles of generosity. There is much written in the Bible that describes the kinds of gifts God gives here and now in this age. One basic principle of how He gives is that His gifts are always given for the ultimate good of the recipients. Understanding this single point helps us to glimpse just how important our generosity can be.
How should we be giving?
Now comes the question regarding how to apply this. How do we in a practical sense, give to others in need while keeping everyone’s ultimate good in mind? A good place to start is with the simple phrase, “Don’t just give to bail someone out of a problem, give to build them up.” This kind of giving stretches us to an entirely different level of thinking and action. Instead of just giving a handout and hoping we helped, we are now engaging in the activity. While this obviously takes greater effort and a measure of spiritual wisdom, it can also yield much greater blessings for all involved.
Giving can also be done in many different ways. We can support others financially. Perhaps we can assist with ongoing physical needs be they food, shelter or physical aid. We can also contribute to others through the generous gift of our time.
Check out our November 25, 2024 podcast, “How Generous Should We Be?” for more. We base our generosity conversation on God’s own principles while looking at the practicality of those three ways to give. We share several true stories of giving in these areas. Some of these experiences ended up working out well and resulted in great blessings. Others of these experiences ended up not quite the way we had planned. That brings us to another question. If our giving in a certain way ends up not working out, what do we do then? Join us on this wonderful journey of generosity and find out!
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