When I was growing
up I did a local paper round with my brother. We delivered papers to
quite a range of houses. Some of the houses were in the poorer part of
the suburb, and some of the houses were in the richer part of the suburb.
Every year, when Christmas came round, different characters would give us gifts
or tips. My brother and I were intrigued by the pattern that emerged over
the 9 years that we did the paper round. The characters who gave us the
most were often those who had the least, and they were the most joyful givers. It was these generous
givers who had big smiles on their faces when we came to the door. They
seemed to have been waiting for us, they had often planned it, with a gift that
was wrapped up, or the money was in an envelope! Those people taught us
both something about giving! And some of those lessons we learnt are
echoed in the passage today. Verse 5 talks about gifts being generous and
out of choice, not because you have to. And verse 7 talks about
cheerfully planning your giving in your heart in a response to God and all that
he has done! When we have a mindset that is reluctant to give, we often
think that all that we have is ours, and if I share it, that’s it, it’s
gone. This chapter encourages us to think that God is the source of all
that we have and that when we are generous with what we have, he will
replenish. God is a God who gives, and we should be people who give, and
then we will also receive. V.6 whoever sows generously will also reap
generously.
If we really grasped all that God has done for us, the gifts he has given us, we would be so much more generous and cheerful in our giving, and we would see giving as another form of worship! All that we have is his anyway!
If we really grasped all that God has done for us, the gifts he has given us, we would be so much more generous and cheerful in our giving, and we would see giving as another form of worship! All that we have is his anyway!
(lay member of staff)