Scripture: 2 Corinthians 9:6-15
Generosity Encouraged
6 Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 7 Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. 9 As it is written:
“They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor;
their righteousness endures forever.”
10 Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. 11 You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.
12 This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. 13 Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, others will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. 14 And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. 15 Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!
Observation
The farmer, who sows more seeds, gets a greater harvest. Someone who gives to God is like the farmer. The more one gives, the more God will reward the giver. God is generous and we should be generous as well. God loves people who give with great happiness in their minds. God blesses a cheerful giver. We should not give out of compulsion but we should give willingly and earnestly so we will be blessed abundantly in return. God will give us all we need. As a result, we can be generous to other people and they will be thankful to God. This is a promise of spiritual fruitfulness. Our generosity will lead to their respect for God.
We thank God for his gift of Jesus Christ. We need to be able to complete our act of Grace when we decide to give. Our gifts should be ideas born simply out of concerns for those in need, for we see the sacrifice in Christ first. Jesus sacrificed his wealth for our sake and so we might be brought out of spiritual poverty.
Application
When I give, I want to be able to give, more and above, beyond the extent of what I perceived my means to be. I want to be a cheerful giver, to give with a smile, to give earnestly, so people will experience the love, delight, joy, happiness and blessings that I received from God. I hope people around me, family and friends, are able to see that my generosity comes from the overflowing love and blessings that God has poured into my life.
I want to be able to give my words of encouragement, my thanks etc freely to people around me, people who have blessed me in many ways. I want to be able to be continually sensitive towards other people’s needs, to be understanding, to not be scares with my words, my expression of care and concern. I want to be able to have an enhanced ability to express my apprehension of their struggles and that I truly care for them. I want to be able to give so freely, to be able to urge people around me to open up their hearts to God, to explore the depths of their hearts, to invite them to journey with a fervent passion and to have a wonderful relationship with you, oh Lord God.
I want to be able to give willingly and earnestly in every way that I can. I believe God will bless me abundantly with spiritual fruitfulness, for “A spiritual life grows as love finds its centre beyond ourselves. Faithful and committed relationships offer a door into the mystery of spiritual life in which we discover this; the more we give of self, the richer we become in soul; the more we go beyond ourselves in love, the more we become our true selves and our spiritual beauty is more fully revealed.” The more we give of ourselves, the richer we become in soul.
I want to be less self-centred, to be able to put others’ needs before mine, to be able to reach out to those in need, to be able to be a leading example, to influence people’s lives by setting an example of my strong faith and my firm, amazing walk with God.
I want to give thanks to all the people around me – family, friends, acquaintances, lovers and enemies. I want to thank those who have given me so much, especially for those who I have ungratefully taken for granted, for their graciousness and their steadfastness in me, for the joy, happiness and blessings hat they have offered me. I want to thank my parents, for J and his parents for this 1 year and 6 months, for their overwhelming generosity, for their love, care, concern, hope and faith. I want to thank J and his parents who have taken care of me and look over me so much for I am away from the care, protection and guidance of my parents. I thank them for their strictness and their assertion of discipline in us.
I thank God for those who have wronged me, for through all these, I will strengthen rather than harden my heart. I want to continue to give and give more fervently. I will forgive and forget for all those who wronged me, rather I am thanking them for the challenges that I am facing in life, for the daily struggles and the crisis that had brought me once again closer to God.
I want to thank God for J2 for his steadfastness, for never giving up on me, for attempting to contact me again and again, to salvage me, and bring me close to you. I thank God for J2 and for his prayers, his encouragement, his generosity and all that he is.
Most of all, I want to thank God, for your steadfastness in me, for your mercy and grace, for your blessings and all that you have given me. I want to offer my most fervent thanks to you, oh Lord. I thank you God for the precious hearts of the people around me. May you bless them abundantly, may you knock on their doors, urge them to open up their hearts to you, urge them to beseech you and to journey with you.
Prayer
Dear God,
It’s good to be able to speak to you again, to be able to open up to you, though not completely, I am still opening up. God, I am sorry for trailing off course, for being ignorant through these years, for shutting you out of my doorstep, shutting my heart cold from you, shutting you out of my life and not be firm with my walk with you. I am sorry for my sins, for the horrible wrongdoings that only you know of, for everything that I have done which have so disappoint you. Here, I offer my fervent thanks of your grace and your mercy.
God, I thank you for everything in my life, thank you for the life that you have breathe into me, thank you for all the blessings, for the good and the bad, the warning bells of depression, the slaps in the face, the heart’s dull ache that eventually becomes the constant screaming of the heart. God, I thank you for all the challenges, the obstacles in my life, the hardship and the strength that you have so abundantly given me to overcome things in life. I thank you for all of these, calling me back to you, my Creator.
I thank you for all the people in my life who well and truly care for me and love me. I thank you for all the wonderful individuals in my life and their precious hearts, for blessing me, for helping, pushing and challenging me, for encouraging, inspiring and leading me.
Most of all, I thank God for the precious heart that you have given me. I am sorry to have forsaken my true heart’s desires and my spiritual thirst and hunger. I pray that I will forever hold on to you for dear life, to always beseech you for love, strength, guidance and comfort above all, and to have such great thirst and hunger to know you. I pray that I crave for you, for your words to satisfy my spiritual hunger every day of my life. I pray that you will push me so hard that I will lay my life down for you, that I will open up my heart and give it to you in its entirety. I pray that I will have an increasing acquaintance with Jesus, establishing and constantly working on having a strong bond with you, oh Lord. I pray that I am always filled with thanksgiving and praise, because God is a good God and he is Faithful. I pray that God will continue to direct my step, and continue your mighty work in me and through me, and continue to grow exponentially under your provision.
God, I thank you for all the people in my life. I pray to God that you hear my cries for renewed love and revival of faith, a fresh start, a clean slate and a wonderful, loving, amazing support network that strengthens my walk with God. I thank God for all that have offered me acts of kindness, even down to an anonymous stranger I happened to meet eyes with on public transport or the elevator, and their smiles that brightens my day, ever so slightly. God, may you bless them abundantly for their generosity, their act of kindness and compassion.
Lord God, I thank you for J, for his amazing Heart of Gold, for this 1 year and 6 months, for all his effort, for all his love, care and commitment, for his generosity. I thank you God for his dear precious heart. I thank you God for J’s parents, for all that they are, for all the love, care, guidance and protection they have offered me, for being my parents when I am away from home. I thank God for aunty and the meals that she prepared, for her nurturance, care and concern. I thank God for uncle for his wisdom, his kindness and his guidance. I thank God for all of their overwhelming, overflowing generosity.
Lord God, I pray that you guide you each step of the way as we journey through life. I thank God so much for J2 that has carried me to your arms in faith, for his steadfastness in me, for his determination in me to beseech you, to seek you. I pray that God will give us all our daily bread, gives us strength. May you lay your healing hands on J and his family, my family and friends, for emotionally brokenness and physically illness. May you watch over them every step of their way, guiding them and continue your mighty work in them and through them. May you bless our households with abundance and fill it with overflowing love. May you constantly knock on the doors of those who shut you out until we beseech you to have a wonderful relationship and to journey through life with fervent passion. May you fill our lives with love, faith and hope. May we give generously, earnestly for we are blessed so abundantly by the amazing God. May we give out of joyful willingness. May we never lose sight of God, the empire of Love. May we pass the test of sincerity and be cheerful in giving.
Oh Lord God, may you save those who are so drown in the evils of life for they have been so ignorant of their hearts, may you save them from the lies, maliciousness and destructive rage and anger. I pray that we repent, ask for your mercy and grace, and beseech you for renewed Love, revival of Faith, for peace, strength and steadfastness in journeying with you oh Lord God.
I ask all these in Jesus name, Amen.
