Generous Pt 2

2 Corinthians 9:11

KJV “Being enriched in every thing to all bountifulness, which causeth through us thanksgiving to God.”

NIV “You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.”

AMP “Thus you will be enriched in all things and in every way, so that you can be generous, and [your generosity as it is] administered by us will bring forth thanksgiving to God.

MSG “He gives you something you can then give away, which grows into full-formed lives, robust in God, wealthy in every way, so that you can be generous in every way, producing with us great praise to God.”

What a powerful promise of God. I mean really, he is telling us that he who created us, he who holds the world in the palm of his hand, is going to bless us…so that we can bless others…so that he will get the glory. Hmmm, sounds like a win-win to me. God who has everything, owns everything, created everything…God…all knowing, all powerful, the one who decides how much snow we get, decided he was going to bless us so that we could be generous on all occasions. But what exactly does generous mean? When I took it back to the Greek (yeah I know but bear with me here) I came to the word eumetadotos (2130) that simply means ready or free to impart. Ready…Free. Okay to be generous means I have to be ready and I have to be free.

You all know that my husband’s commodity is money and mine is time so as I am reading this verse that is what is going through my mind. In order to be generous with my time I have to be free and ready. In order to be generous with my love it needs to be free and ready (free of past hurts). What ever it is that God is asking of us, what he is giving us is the ability to be free in an area, so that we can bless someone else, so that they too can be free in that area. The light is coming on here. If I am free with my money, and I give it to someone who isn’t free with their money, guess what has just happened, they have become a bit more free and now they can see past their circumstances and see the hand of God in their lives which gets us to the glory thing again. It all goes back to the Moses thing…he had to live in the desert and earn his wilderness survival badge…he had to get free so that he could set the captives free. He had to get past his fear of the Pharaoh so that he could go in to the Pharaoh with boldness and say, “Let my people go”.

Isn’t that what God wants for us? He wants to take us through the hard stuff so that we learn to be bolder - so that we can learn spiritual warfare? So that we can walk right up to Satan and say, “Let my people go.” Let my Daddy go, let my brothers go, let my children go. God wants us to be ready and to be free. He wants to make us rich. Rich in his freedom, rich in his love, free.

John 8:36 tells us, “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”

How much of this do we really claim for ourselves? He wants to make us rich, ready, and free. Yeap, he does…so much so that he already did the work. It is up to us to show up at the attorney’s office and claim our inheritance. He sent the letter telling us it belonged to us, the Bible is the greatest love letter every written. We have been informed, but are we going to let it rot in a safety deposit box or are we going to march in with boldness and say, this is mine, the lover of my soul said so.


Matthew 25:28-30, “Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents. For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

In Matthew 25:29, another spiritual promise is revealed. This is the end of the parable about the talents - the three men - you know the story. Jesus finishes the story in verses 28-30 by saying essentially believers who make good use of what they have will be given more. God gives more money to those who use it for Him; he gives more time, to those who use it for Him. So if I use everything that God has already freely given me, which all belongs to Him that he gives to me in the first place, to bring Him glory guess what happens? I get more. If I use it for myself guess what? I don’t. Pretty simple. Being generous means more blessings, more trust, more commodity, more to give away. The cycle just snowballs.

I know that it is easy to be depressed when we look at the circumstances that we live in. I know that there are times that my husband is just overwhelmed…there are times that I get overwhelmed. Even Jesus asked God to take the cup from him before he went to the cross. Jesus paid the price - the work has been done. He has already decided. His is victorious in all things and if he says that he wants to make us rich in all things who am I to argue. So I get back up, I grab a hold of my cross and I keep walking. Jesus has already led the way. The map has been drawn. There are no questions left to ask…rich, abundance, ready, blessed. That is what He says that we are. I think today I will choose to agree.

Father God, I come to you and say I understand what you are trying to tell me, I pray that you will enable me to give it to others. Lord, I know that I have walked and I continue to be tested with struggles and with carrying my cross and my own burdens. I know that you share my yoke with me and I am sorry for complaining about how hard it is. Lord, I understand that you are doing this for me and not to me. Lord, I am blessed, you have given me more than I could ever deserve after the places and the things the sins that I have committed. It is only by your hand, it is only because of you. You have saved my life. You have separated my sin as far as the east is to the west. You call me clean, holy and righteous. You call me rich. You call me precious. You call me beloved. Lord, I decide wholeheartedly to agree with your word and your promises. I don’t know how Lord, I don’t know how to get past here. I just know that I am not going to run past you. I choose to be free, I choose to be ready, and I chose to be generous in all things. I love you Lord. I give you my life, which you breathed into me. You are my rock and my salvation. You are the truth; you are always faithful, always diligent. I trust you. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.