In our blog post, What’s In Your Wallet, we discovered that God is the source and giver of everything we have. Whether seed (i.e. resources) or bread (for food), it all originates from Him (2 Corinthians 9:10). In What’s in your Wallet? Part 2, we discussed why God provides seed and bread for us. In summary, it is so we can have everything we need and be generous and bless others.
For those that have responded properly to God’s generosity (i.e. by liberally giving as described in v8-9 vs. consuming all the seed for our own lusts/self), God has promised to also:
- Supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. v10 NIV
- Supply and multiply the seed sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness. V10 NKJV
- Provide and increase your resources and then produce a great harvest of generosity in you. v10 NLT
Our proper response also results in God enriching us in everything and every way so that we can always be generous on every occasion (v11).
Our giving produces fruits of praise, prayer and thanksgiving to God from the recipients on our behalf (v11-12). Just as importantly, it supplies the needs of God’s saints so that the work of the Kingdom of God can continue.
This is the same principle Jesus described in Luke 6:38 – “Give, it shall be given unto you, good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over shall men give into your bosom”. Strangely enough, the more we give, the more we have. In fact, King Solomon wrote:
“There is the one who [generously] scatters [abroad], and yet increases all the more;And there is the one who withholds what is justly due, but it results only in want and poverty.”
~Proverbs 11:24
We are to show this generosity first to those in the household of faith i.e. fellow Christians but also to everyone (Galatians 6:10). “Moved by the extravagance of God in our lives, they will respond by praying for whatever we need” (v14 – MSG).
God exhorts us to not be weary in well doing for in due time we will reap/receive our harvest if we do not lose heart (Galatians 6:9). The truth is God has already promised increase in His Word (2 Corinthians 9:10) so we should rest on His promises and ignore the process trusting that God is faithful and will bring His Word to pass.
“The math of heaven isn’t a calculation of scarcity but of abundance. We can share joyfully because God promises to care for us even as we are generous to others.”
~Our Daily Bread.
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Samra, Lisa. “Not Enough”. Our Daily Bread (ODB), 19 Feb 2018, https://odb.org/2018/02/19/goldfish/
