When my husband and I were first married and we were working several part-time jobs to support ourselves while he finished his last year of college, we rarely had any extra funds to spend on wants. One Christmas, we were grateful to have our necessary bills paid but had nothing left over to buy food for even a nice Christmas dinner. But that week I found a gift certificate to a local grocery store in my mailbox at work. It was enough for us to buy groceries to last the whole week. That Christmas surprise was a real blessing to us and a testimony to us that we could trust God’s promise to provide for our needs.
In Luke 6:37-39, Jesus exhorted us to be generous, “Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.” Generosity is a vital practice in God’s economy, for that is how the Lord funnels resources to those in need. Just as there is a water cycle—the rain falling on the earth, producing fruit, then evaporating back to the sky where it can fall again as rain—so too there is a generosity cycle. Here’s how it works:
“By humility and the fear of the LORD are riches and honor and life…He who has a generous eye will be blessed, for he gives of his bread to the poor.” (Proverbs 22:4, 9)
When we are humble and fear the Lord, He blesses us with riches, honor and life. But He expects us, in turn, to be generous with His blessings to help supply the needs of the poor. Then, as we are faithful to share the resources He has given us, He credits our heavenly account with more of His riches and blessings, which He will then pour out on us as we continue to fear Him and humble ourselves before Him. A practical example of this cycle of giving can be seen in the generosity the Philippian believers showed to Paul,
“Now you Philippians know also that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church shared with me concerning giving and receiving but you only. For even in Thessalonica you sent aid once and again for my necessities. Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that abounds to your account…And my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:15-19)
So, as God shares His blessings with us, and we share those blessings with others, God is blessed in return and stores up more blessings to pour out on us. That is how the generosity cycle works! I encourage you today to keep your generous eyes open for opportunities to spread around the blessings that God has shared with you. And don’t worry if you are limited in what you can do; generosity has a snowball effect—a small gift can come back to you in an even greater outpouring as you are faithful to the Lord.