Divine Generosity

Giving, if you let it, will transform your soul. As a spiritual practice, giving breaks the strongholds of fear and worry. When we are generous, we wade into the abundant flow of God's grace. When we give without thought of what we'll receive in return, we reflect, with astonishing accuracy, divine generosity. We declare that our fear of scarcity will not rule our lives. We gain insight into how God feels when he gives to us. Is it possible that he delights in bestowing good gifts on his children?

Our culture, unfortunately, misunderstands giving. We think of it, honestly, as trading. I get you something, you get me something—hopefully we spend about the same amount so no one feels awkward. We all know that panicked feeling when friends show up at our door in December with wrapped packages in their hands and we realize we didn't get anything for them. We now feel we "owe" them a gift. I've read holiday tips in women's magazines that suggest keeping a wrapped stash of generic gifts in your front closet for just such occasions. Kind of takes the meaning out of it, doesn't it?

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The first Sunday in December the church with which I am sojourning gave away $12000 to the people who attended its 9:30 AM and 11:00 AM worship services. Everyone who came to one of these gatherings was give a $50 dollar bill with only one instruction--to use the money as God lead them to use it.

At the same services a special Dream Year offering was taken, and the amount of the offering was announced the following Sunday. The money from the special Dream Year offering was earmarked for a number of new projects that the church is hoping to undertake during the coming new year. This offering was taken earlier in the two services before the surprise give-away.

The people who came to the two services were blown away by the church's generosity. On the following Sunday those who came to the services were blown away again--this time by the generosity of those who had attend the services the previous Sunday. They had donated $15000 to the special Dream Year offering!

When we give generously, we indeed wade into the abundant flow of God's grace.