And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. Colossians 3:17
“I really haven’t figured out how to help a person who is not generous become generous. But I have figured out how to help a person who is already generous get more clear and confident about how they want to express generosity. Then those generous lives tend to explode.
There are two qualities — two characteristics, let’s say — that I’ve seen consistently time after time after time of those people who take their lives to a very, very generous place. The first is they have a sense of gratitude, and the second is they have margin.
They have some margin in their lives of time or capacity of some kind. Margin has nothing to do with how many zeros you have in your bank account. It’s a sense that you get, and I think it’s a God-given sense that’s born out of a sense of gratitude.
You start answering the question, “Well, you know, I think I have enough.” That’s a really hard question to answer, how much is enough, right? Yes. So once you have a sense of gratitude, then you can move to this posture of, “I think I might have enough,” and all of a sudden you have margin and you can be generous.”
John Stanley, author of Connected for Good: A Gameplan for a Generous Life, in FamilyLife Today Radio Transcript entitled, “The Gift of Giving” on 12 December 2016.
As we draw closer to Holy Week, my heart is filled with gratitude for all Jesus has done for me and for the whole world. In dying on the cross for us, He made a way for all who receive Him to have life, abundant and eternal!
When we grasp what it took for Jesus to do this, we realize that God made margin for us and desires that we make margin for others! With Stanley, I agree that until we exhibit gratitude and margin, generosity will not flow richly.
As I teach in various locations throughout the Philippines this week, including a large group of ministry administrators and board members in Manila (pictured above from the CCT guest flat), I will empty myself generously because I am grateful that in Christ I have everything I need.