“God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.” II Corinthians 9:8
Receiving blessings from God can easily become an interest of the Christian. After all, who doesn’t like to receive a blessing? Who doesn’t like to see the Lord working on our behalf? It’s a great feeling to receive a gift. Receiving a gift is receiving from God’s grace. It’s over and above what we have worked for or attained in our own strength.
There is another aspect of grace that God wants to interest us in, and that is the grace to give. The concept is the same – God wants us to lean on Him to go over and above what we could do with our own ability and our own resources. He wants us to rely on His grace, His strength and His supply, to have something to give to someone else.
The heart of God is love, and His love is gracious; His love is generous. We are His children; we are like our Father when we desire to show generosity to someone else. Generosity expresses the compassionate love of God to another person that God loves.
A believer who desires to give is a believer that God will resource to give. A believer who desires to give is a person who trusts God to not only meet their need, but also to use them to meet the needs of someone else. Our interest in being a giver, when it is based on God’s grace, is focused on seeing another person blessed. Don’t wait until your supply is built up before you give. A faith giver will see God’s grace as their supply.
We are like God when His love is ruling our hearts, compelling us to be a blessing to someone else instead of focusing on how we can be blessed ourselves. Our faith opens up our heart to become a wider pipeline to both give and receive God’s grace. Our faith causes us to be open-handed instead of closed-fist. The more open we are, the more liberal and free God’s grace flows through us. The person who matures in their faith believes God to operate through them with His abundant, over-the-top grace. A person of faith isn’t relying on his or her own supply to give. They are relying on God’s grace for His supply to flow through them. It is better to give than it is to receive.
Application: According to II Corinthians 9:10, even the seed we have to give is from God. Ask God for seed to sow. God will provide a way for you to become a conduit of His generous love and grace.