FOUNDATIONS – Episode 120 –  Grace and Generosity

[00:00:00] Hello, welcome to your daily Grace By Timothy Wilder Foundations Episode 120 Grace and Generosity Generosity as Overflow when most people think about generosity, they think about what they have. How much money can I give? How much time can I spare? How many resources do I have available? [00:00:26] While those questions are understandable, Scripture often approaches generosity from a different direction. Rather than focusing on what is in our hands, it focuses on what is happening in our hearts. [00:00:39] Jesus said in Luke 6:45 that we ultimately live out of whatever fills our hearts. While he was speaking about our words, the principle extends much further. [00:00:51] What fills us eventually flows from us. If our hearts are filled with fear, fear will overflow. If they are filled with bitterness, bitterness will eventually surface. [00:01:03] The same is true of generosity. [00:01:06] Genuine generosity is not something we manufacture through willpower alone. It is something that grows naturally from a heart touched by God's grace. [00:01:18] I think this is why generosity can become exhausting when approached merely as a duty. We can force ourselves to give for a season, but lasting generosity requires something deeper. Trying to become generous without first understanding God's generosity toward us is like trying to draw water from an empty well. [00:01:41] Sooner or later we discover there is very little left to give. [00:01:46] Under the new covenant, we are invited to live from fullness rather than scarcity. [00:01:52] Jesus described this beautifully in John 7:38 when he said that rivers of living water would flow from those who believe in him. Notice the picture he paints. Believers are not reservoirs guarding a limited supply. [00:02:08] They are rivers. They receive, but they also flow. [00:02:13] That is what grace does. The more secure we become in God's love and provision, the easier it becomes to live with open hands. We no longer view every act of generosity as a loss because we know the One who continually supplies us. [00:02:29] One of the clearest examples of this is found in 2 Corinthians 8. [00:02:35] Paul describes the Macedonian believers, people facing hardship and poverty. [00:02:41] Yet their overflowing joy produced remarkable generosity. Their giving was not rooted in abundance of possessions it was rooted in abundance of grace. What God was doing in their hearts became visible in their lives. [00:02:56] David expresses a similar idea in Psalm 23 when he writes, my cup overflows. God's blessings were never intended to stop with us. They were always meant to flow through us to others. [00:03:11] This is also why generosity is connected to the fruit of the Spirit. As God's spirit produces love, joy, kindness, and goodness within us, generosity becomes a natural expression of those qualities. It shifts from something we do to someone we become. [00:03:30] Perhaps that is the real secret of generosity. [00:03:34] It is not found in having more it is found in recognizing how much we have already received in Christ. As our hearts become increasingly aware of God's grace, generosity ceases to be a struggle and becomes an overflow. What God pours into us naturally begins to pour through us, blessing others along the way. [00:03:57] Thanks for listening. [00:03:59] If you are being fed and or uplifted by these messages, we encourage you to like, comment, share and subscribe. These things help us spread the message of grace.