Happy Wednesday to you.
Are you in for a treat or what! Last year, I asked my sister, Anelle, to be the closer for the birthday surprise series (read her post here) but this year she is one of our starters. My sister in three words is: wise, intelligent and God-fearing. So you know she has got a good word for us today. I am confident that God will bless you!
“Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.” James 1:27
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“Their only suggestion was that we keep on helping the poor which I have always been eager to do.” Galatians 2:10
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“A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will himself be refreshed.” Proverbs 11:25
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“If you continually give, you will continually have.” Fortune Cookie from
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I was going to write about circumcision. I was. On Sunday, I found this really great passage in Galatians 5 about freedom in Christ and about how anyone who tries to take us away from our freedom should go circumcise himself. It’s classic stuff. I was very excited about it. I was so excited that I decided to write about it for this blog, and I was going to share it in my teachers’ devotion at work, too. But, God had other plans. At school, I ended up reading from Psalm 25, and here I get to talk to you about a sort of project that God has undertaken in my life for the past year or so: Becoming a Generous Person.
When I say generous, I’m not talking just about giving to the needy. For whatever reason, I’ve always had a heart for the poor and for the orphaned. My issue is being generous with everyone else. As we tried to figure out what I could write about (beside circumcision), my sister, Raquel, said, “don’t be afraid to be vulnerable” which didn’t make sense to me since generosity isn’t one of those things that you only talk about in same-gender meetings. I said that I could talk about what we’re doing in my class with World Vision. She pointed out that being generous isn’t just about sharing your stuff; being generous is also about sharing your time, sharing your gifts, sharing your space, sharing your service. That hit home. I have a hard time sharing myself with others. As a sanguine-melancholic, I love people, but I love them at my convenience. Lately God has been pushing my limits in this area. He’s put me in a number of situations this past week alone where I have had to step out of my comfort zone and share my gasoline, my Saturday morning, my Tuesday afternoon, my Sunday night. He’s made me be generous with my affection, with my beauty sleep (!), with my money, with my ears, and every time He has paid me back. He’s paid me back with free coffee, free sushi, free ice-cream (free food is my love language), and with companionship. He’s allowed me to bond with people that I would have otherwise overlooked. He has given me His peace and His presence.
It’s my prayer that God may continue to stretch me in this area. What about you? Where do you stand when it comes to generosity?
