Does God see you as generous or greedy?
Generous and generate come from the same Latin word, genus, meaning “race, or kind.” Generous means “giving.” Generate means “multiply.” Consequently, generosity multiplies giving in the human race. God’s desire is to multiply our gifts through us to generate generosity in others. Yet many of us still believe that our grasp at significance, contentment, control, and security apart from God will ultimately satisfy these four primary desires. Attempting to satisfy our desires apart from God creates the gap of pretense in each one of us. The gap misaligns our hearts, desires, and three resources of life, from the outside in, leaving us dissatisfied.
We tend to think of generosity only in terms of giving something that we already have, usually measured in financial capital. However, generosity begins before the first dollar comes in because it originates with a generous heart and its accompanying desires that are fully surrendered to God. This results in fully surrendering our three resources of life: time, talent, and treasure. This act of surrender is not restricted to merely how money exits our coffers.
Our barrier to generosity is greed. Whereas, a greedy heart results from pride vertically toward God and horizontally toward others, a generous heart begins with humility toward God and others because God generously gives grace to the humble (Proverbs 3:34). A proud greedy heart is hard. A humble generous heart is soft. The Bible connects a hard heart with a tight fist, and a soft heart with an open hand (Deuteronomy 15:7-8). We are called to be softhearted and openhanded with our resources because God is generous (Matthew 20:15). His ultimate generosity was displayed in Christ. Paul stated, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9). He is the ultimate picture of the vertical intersecting with the horizontal.
Humility is also the prerequisite to wisdom (Proverbs 11:2). Consequently, a person with a generous heart is wise. However, a person with a greedy heart is foolish. Solomon asked, “Of what use is money in the hand of a fool, since he has no desire to get wisdom” (Proverbs 17:16). Money is pride’s measurement of our giftedness. Wisdom is humility’s measurement of our godliness.
This week, pray daily for the humble heart of Christ, seeking His generosity and wisdom. Simply say, “God, give me your heart.”
Episode 27: God's Ins, Outs, Ups, and Downs of Resources, Part 1 from mitchkrusetv on Vimeo.