Larry R. Evans: Generosity begins with God, not us

“Generosity begins with God, not with us. Our generosity, whether it be with time, talent, or treasure, is first made possible because of God’s generosity. It was clearly seen in the sacrifice of Jesus. How ironic! Out of His poverty we are provided with opportunities to be rich with our own generosity. The danger, of course, lies in the temptation to assume that it is we who are generous. We must remember that generosity is not so much a virtuous act on our part, but rather a virtuous response to what God has done and is doing.”

Larry R. Evans in Dynamic Steward Journal, Jan-Mar 2014, volume 18, number 1, page 2.

Lord, open our eyes to see how generous you have been to us. In response, help us become people who receive from your abundance and go forth in this broken and hurting world as generous sharers. May this biblical thinking take root and bear fruit to help transform all who read this.

“God unmistakably connects caring for the poor to His own presence. When we are generous to the poor, we honor the Lord, bear His image, and reflect His heart. Conversely, when we neglect to do so, we taunt our Maker (Prov. 14:31).”

Rob Kuban in “The Poor: A Cornerstone of Christian Generosity” post on 4 December 2011 at Free Money Finance.

Jenni and I will be serving church and Christian school leaders in Honduras this week who are largely poor. Please pray for a safe and fruitful journey.

We are asking God to prepare our hearts for what He will teach us on this trip, because every time we endeavor to serve the poor we are blessed beyond whatever we offer.

Don’t neglect the poor around you but be generous to them. And don’t be surprised if the blessing you receive from Christ far outweighs your humble service.

In the first annual ECFA church stewardship survey, here are a few of the findings:

“Spiritual complacency and inadequate understanding of biblical generosity were ranked as the two greatest obstacles to increased giving.

More than two-thirds of churches have no written biblical generosity strategy.

When asked what kind of stewardship training the church provides to staff, board, and volunteers, approximately 40% to 50% of churches said “none.”

Nearly 60 percent said they did not have a written philosophy for teaching people what the Bible says about money and possessions.”

For more helpful insights, visit www.ecfa.org to locate the full report.

What’s this mean for you? What’s your church doing (or not doing) in this vital area? At the very least, we must model and intentionally teach biblical stewardship if we want to help people grow in their practice of Christian generosity.

“Sometimes we behave like children in a toy shop. We want this, and that, and then something else. The many options confuse us and create an enormous restlessness in us. When someone says, “Well, what do you want? You can have one thing. Make up your mind,” we do not know what to choose. As long as our hearts keep vacillating among these many wants, we cannot move forward in life with inner peace and joy. That is why we need inner and outer disciplines, to go beyond these wants and discover our mission in life.”

Henri Nouwen in Bread for the Journey: A Daybook of Wisdom and Faith (New York: HarperCollins, 1997) daily reading for 22 April.

What do you want?

I recall my mom telling me that her grandfather would say something like this: “I have everything I need because I have learned to control my wants?” That’s the role of the disciplines: to learn to limit our wants and to keep our focus where it should be.

What do I want? I want what David (the psalmist) said he wanted.

One thing I ask from the LORD, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the LORD and to seek Him in His temple. Psalm 27:4

I am finding that I can’t even think about being generous if I am not content with Christ and thankful that my basic needs are met (cf. Philippians 4:12-13; 1 Timothy 6:8). I used to think I needed so much. I am learning to control my wants.

I pray these meditations encourage you to this end as well.

“What the sun is for the day, this is what we consider almsgiving to be for fasting: just as the sunbeam makes the day brighter and scatters all the dark clouds, so almsgiving sanctifies the sacredness of fasting and by the light of compassion drives out all death that comes from desire. And in short, what the soul is for the body, this is how generosity is regarded for fasting: for just as the soul by leaving the body kills the body, so too the departure of generosity is the death of fasting.”

Peter Chrysologus in Sermon 8.2.3.

When I live in light of the resurrection, I find myself wanting what Christ wants. When I live according to the flesh, I find myself wanting everything the world offers.

What I love about the discipline fasting beyond Lent and as a part of everyday life is this: it helps us put to death the desires of the flesh and frees us to live generously.

We learn to discern the difference between wants and needs. We become mindful of our own brokenness and become agents of mercy. Through us, Christ’s life shines brightly.

“We do well to distinguish between what we want and what we, in fact, need to be people of the God of the resurrection. When I ask my wife what she wants, she sometimes says, “a brick made out of gold.” That is not going to happen. God is not going to provide such a thing. I am suggesting, however, that we give careful attention to the two resurrection stories in John’s gospel [Lazarus and Jesus]. There we see a generous God who seems to want to do nothing more than to bless us.

Resurrection implies an abundance of life and the ability to provide it. We will be given what we need to live as disciples of the risen Lord. We will be provided with what we need to grow up into Christ. Churches will have what they need to carry out the mission God has called them to. You can count on it–you can build your future on it. As my grandmother used to say, “There will be plenty.”

C. Franklin Brookhart in Living the Resurrection: Reflections After Easter (Harrisburg: Morehouse, 2012) excerpt from chapter three.

Are you living out the resurrection reality that you have everything you need to live as a disciple of our risen Lord? If not, what’s holding you back? Fear that God won’t provide? Worry linked to the cares of this world? The best way for us to proclaim the good news of the resurrection of Christ to the world is to live like we believe it.

“A dead Christ, I must do everything for; a living Christ does everything for me.”

Andrew Murray in Jesus Himself (New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1893) 10.

What’s this mean for you and me? Because Jesus is alive, we have life and eternal salvation. So glad we don’t have to try to do good works to earn that!

With joy and gratitude, let us respond with hilarious generosity that imitates Him. Let’s do this not to win God’s favor but in response to it.

“Be generous with your witness for Christ this Easter. Peter and John ran to the empty tomb and saw with their own eyes that the body of Jesus was gone. Jesus met others along the way to Emmaus. When they returned to Jerusalem to tell everyone possible what happened on their trip…

Having experienced all of this first-hand, the disciples could have kept the miracle of the resurrection to themselves. Instead, they proclaimed the message of new life through Jesus Christ that would be spread to the corners of the earth to this day…

Let’s mark Easter weekend with acts of generosity… Do something nice for someone in Jesus’ name who needs a basic need met the week before or after Easter. Share your personal faith in Jesus with at least one person…

Is resurrection generosity expensive? You better believe it is. It cost Jesus everything to make it happen. In grateful response to His love for you, give extravagantly to the One who gave His all for you so that another pilgrim on this earth can experience the eternal reward on Resurrection morning.”

Jim Dunn, executive director of Church Multiplication and Discipleship for The Wesleyan Church, in “Resurrection Generosity” post on 10 April 2014

May the hope and joy of the resurrection propel us to run like the first disciples to proclaim the good news in word and deed to at least one person this Easter. Be ready and pray for God to open the door of opportunity.

“Out of love for us, Jesus freely walked the path of humiliation and self-abandonment for our salvation. As Saint Paul says, “He emptied himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:7-8).

As we contemplate Jesus in His passion and the sufferings of all humanity, we discover God’s answer to the mystery of evil, suffering and death. He gives us His Son, who dies humiliated, betrayed, abandoned and reviled. Yet God’s victory shines forth in what appears, in human terms, to be failure and defeat.

Jesus’ passion is the culmination of His revelation of the Father’s infinite love and His summons to faith in His Word. Christ takes upon himself the power of evil in order to set us free: “by His wounds we have been healed” (cf. 1 Pet 2:24)…

As we follow Jesus along the way of the cross, may we imitate His loving obedience to the will of the Father, especially in times of difficulty and humiliation, and open our hearts to his gifts of reconciliation, redemption and new life.”

Pope Francis in “Jesus died humiliated, but God’s victory shines” remarks on 16 April 2014. This is a summary of his comments translated into English.

What does it mean for you to follow Jesus on the way of the cross? For me, this has been a significant idea this week. My thoughts have centered on Galatians 2:20.

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Let us imitate Jesus’ obedience to the will of the Father, so that our lives reflect that we have received His gifts of reconciliation, redemption and new life. And may we generously share these gifts with others.

“The cross, God’s radical sacrifice in Christ, is the clearest and most compelling evidence that God has my best interest in mind. The logic is airtight. If God has already loved us enough to give us His very best, don’t you think He has the best in mind for our future?

Put in simple terms, if someone paid a million-dollar ransom to free you from a kidnapper, do you really believe you’d have to worry about who’s going to buy lunch the next day? My point is that God’s generosity in the cross reminds us that not only has He been good to us, but also that He is committed to being good to us in the future. That is why we can trust Him when those big lordship decisions come up. We can surrender ourselves to him because he is very, very good.”

Chip Ingram in God: As He Longs for You to See Him (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2004) 68.

Today is a contemplative day, a solemn day, because we remember Jesus death on the cross. While you are thinking about the cross, consider Ingram’s point. If God loves us enough to cover the debt we could never repay through Jesus sacrifice for us, don’t you think He’s trustworthy to sort the small stuff of life too. He tells us He will if we seek Him first (Matthew 6:33).

Think of the things you worry about. Seriously, make a list either in your mind or on paper. I have a few things in mind. Now join me in letting go of those cares. The God who cared for us enough to go to the cross can handle them. Now that we are hands free, let us choose to hold onto Him instead.

Thank you God for your unmatched generosity to us in the cross.