“Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap” (Lk.6:38). “One person gives freely, yet gains even more; another person is stingy, and comes to poverty” (Prov.11:24).
Lord Jesus, your forbearance, patience, and kindness towards us are on display all the time—all the time. We turned this verse into a Ponzi Scheme for self-enrichment, when it actually teaches the opposite reality. Our calling in the Gospel isn’t to get rich quick, but be generous always.
The melody of mercy, tempo of grace, and rhythm of your love is generosity—starting with your big-hearted open-handed liberality towards us. Your “heavenly philanthropy” is always prior, during, and after ours—giving us grace upon grace (Jn.1:16). That’s why we will never regret being generous.
For sure, our kindness can be exploited; but you call us to be generous even with our enemies—giving them love, goodness, blessing, and our prayers (Luke 6:27-28). We will never be generous without experiencing a far greater return. The return may not be “in kind,” or in a time frame that we recognize. But we will have a “full lap” of whatever you choose to give us.
So what currencies are you calling us to spend for the blessing of others this week? Here are 10 of many, many more: listening, money, time, mercy, grace, forgiveness, encouragement, kindness, patience, and hope. Free us, supersize our gratitude, and pour grace-rocket-fuel into our generosity tank. So Very Amen.
