The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. John 10:10
“In God’s economy, we are to first receive from God and then give, because we cannot give what we do not have. We cannot share love if we have not experienced the true love of God first. We cannot show mercy and grace if we have not been first shown mercy and grace. We cannot forgive others if we have not experienced His forgiveness.
On the same note, we cannot give generously unless we have experienced His generous giving towards us. The good news is that He has freely and richly given us all! God has withheld nothing from us. He has given us the greatest gift we could ever receive, and that was Himself! He has given us Jesus Christ to die for our sins and given us this new eternal life of abundance in Him. He came and gave him up for us all so that we may have life and to have it to the full…
Jesus is a generous and gracious giver and because of that, we are able to give generously and graciously as well. We have limitless resources of love, grace and gifts for us to share with others. I can give not because I am loaded but because God is loaded, and His resources and love never run out!”
Sarah Shin, student at Torch Trinity Graduate University in her Philosophy of Biblical Stewardship Paper dated 2 July 2017.
Shin drips with enthusiasm because life in God’s economy is abundant and worth celebrating. Imagine if we only had a little love to give, only a little mercy to show, only a little grace to dispense, only a little forgiveness to extend. Everything about life in the economy of God shouts that we enjoy “life of abundance” thanks to the generosity of God.
So what do our lives look like? Are we an enthusiastic dispensers of God’s abundant love, mercy, grace, forgiveness, and generosity? We must remember, as Shin rightly notes, that we can live richly in all these areas, not because we are loaded, but because God is!