Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. 2 Corinthians 9:7-8
“Today’s massive facts concerning hunger, poverty, and ecological limits have discredited the myth that powerful private interests dedicated to growth automatically serve the public good… Suddenly Christians find themselves thrown back upon a much earlier assumption, one that permeates the entire biblical story: justice requires sharing, particularly with the alien, the fatherless, the widow, the innocent, the needy, the afflicted… A just and sustainable future for the entire world requires a new norm, the norm of sufficiency. Sufficiency must become the controlling consideration for lifestyles, for systems, and for synchronizing lifestyle changes with systemic changes… The aim of sufficiency is that everyone shall have enough of the things that are needed for a reasonably secure and fulfilling life.”
William Gibson in “The Lifestyle of Christian Faithfulness” in Simpler Living, Compassionate Life: A Christian Perspective, ed. Michael Schut (New York: Morehouse, 2008) 132-133.
Cheerful, generous giving is rooted in the core reality that when we have Christ, we have all sufficiency. We have everything we need, have ever needed, and will ever need, so we can abound in sharing and caring. It sums up how we must be different from the world.
Sometimes our sharing and caring takes the form of hand-outs, like the collection for the starving Christians in Jerusalem in today’s Scripture, or sending support to hurricane or typhoon victims. That’s Good Samaritan giving. We attend to those who are suffering.
Other times we offer hand-ups to build disciples over time. For two examples, visit Visions of Hope (part of CCT) in the Philippines which seeks to reach, rescue, root, and restore children for Jesus, or Potter’s House of Guatemala. Join us in supporting both!
As I lead the retreat this weekend for Sarang New Harvest Ministry on praying Scripture and practicing spiritual disciplines, my aim is to help them find all sufficiency in the Word, our Lord Jesus. When our sufficiency is in Him, God supplies grace for us to abound in generosity.