Grace of Giving

A well that has water will yield more water only when the water is drawn and used thru constantly. Quality of well water gets better as it’s used more often. When water is stagnant in the well, it gets bitter over time rendering not usable.

Same is applicable in our Spiritual life as well, God gives us many blessings / talents in the world and he expects us to use that for his works, many times we tend to fold back and shy away from using that for his glory. We always feel uncomfortable / taken back when the pastors / church asks for money or asks to give something. We cannot blame believers alone for this, In Christendom many have used Church / Ministry to be a profit making business with God, They have corrupted believers minds to make us believe that giving to God is a investment business, where we get returns for the money we give to God. What a sorry state of life we are living in this age.

God taught me some principles of giving from Paul’s teaching to 2 Corinthians 8-9 chapters, where Paul is talking to the Corinth church where they had enough to give to ministry and were not giving and he was comparing them with Macedonian church to explain and understand various principles. These are still true to our age as well.

God has a purpose and plan for each of us, The reason Christ came to live in us, is to do what he has planned. For a believer to think that he can live the Christian life in his own strength and ability and receive the grace of God only to expand his blessings in the world is a mistaken understanding. Grace given to us is wasted by us.

'As God’s co-workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain. ' 2 Corinthians 6:1

So how does God use his believers for his purpose? He blesses the believer with talents / Money / Wealth / Positions of Power / Spiritual blessings . The blessing given to the believer is to use for his purpose, it’s usually done by giving back to God based on what God asks us to do.

💡 We always misunderstand giving means its always centred only around money. Giving is not always about money, it can be your time / talent / money / wealth / spiritual blessing etc..

So how does this giving start with believer ?

Grace Giving

'And now, brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. ' 2 Corinthians 8:1-2

• Grace Giving - We learn this principle from Paul’s teaching to Corinth church to say how the Macedonian church gave. “we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches.”

• When a person is willing to give graciously and generously that’s a work of the Holy Spirit of God within that individual’s life. There’s no way in the world a person can say I’m walking with God and be stingy at the same time. That’s an oxymoron. You can’t do that. Living grace is giving grace. All that Paul’s been talking about has been about God’s grace.

• Now what a picture Paul paints for the wealthy believers who are in Corinth. He’s going to contrast the stinginess of the wealthy believers in Corinth with the tremendous grace giving of the poor and destitute Macedonian church. When he says “we want you to know about “ Paul wants them to see what true giving is all about. He wants them to realize that giving is a consequence. It’s a consequence to Christ living his life in and through the believer. It’s a consequence. It’s not something we come up with. It’s something God comes up with in our hearts thru the Grace of God

Passion of Giving Grace

'In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, ' 2 Corinthians 8:2-3

• They didn’t just give, they gave with a passion. They gave when they were in “the midst of a very severe trial”

• Their Passion was so evident they did not worry about what suffering and poverty they were going thru, They gave with Joy “their overflowing joy”

• Paul sums up their passion as “rich generosity” He also testifies their action “ testify that they gave as much as they were able” …

• Their passion was evident they were not pushed / pleaded to give, they gave “Entirely on their own”

• This is what happens when Christ lives in us and when God prompts us to give.

Priority of Grace Giving

'And they exceeded our expectations: They gave themselves first of all to the Lord, and then by the will of God also to us. ' 2 Corinthians 8:5

• The passion to give comes from this “They gave themselves first of all to the Lord” this can happen only when you as a believer realize what you are and who you are is fully from God, there is nothing that you have that makes you the owner of your talent / money / wealth or power or position you are in.

• Paul shows us the secret right here. This is the key to giving anywhere you go in life. It’s got to be first of all a giving of yourself to him and surrendering to the Lordship of Christ in your life. He says, “They gave themselves first of all to the Lord,” This is the priority that we’re talking about. It has to be there. When a believer gives himself to the Lord he gives everything. And the word “Lord” is used here to show you the sovereign control he has over everything in our life. If I say that Jesus is my Lord then that means he owns me. He doesn’t just own me, He owns everything that I thought I owned, everything. I don’t have my money in the bank; I have his money in the bank. I don’t have a car, I have his car. I don’t have a house, I have his house were I live, that kind of attitude. That’s where it starts.

• Once you surrender to Him, He owns it all, and you’re not really giving because a man said it. You’re not giving to a man, you’re giving it back to him and he does with it what He chooses to do with it. You can trust God’s people because you trust the God that lives in people. That’s what he’s trying to get across to them. It wasn’t blind submission and giving, It was by the will of God “then by the will of God also to us”. The divine intention of God was that He wanted to communicate a need of what people needed to do with.

By giving you don’t get poor

'At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. The goal is equality, ' 2 Corinthians 8:14

• Many times we feel by giving what we have we become poor, thats a lie that satan plants in our mind and prevents to give the blessing from us. God does not want us to have plenty.

• What Paul is trying to say is when you give to their need, there’s going to be a time when they’ll be back on their feet. And when they get back on their feet, then they may turn right around and they’re responsible to give to others, maybe even to the Corinthians. Paul says it’s not for them to be freed of their responsibility

• God does not make us desolate when you give to God, he blesses you more when you give to him. This is the promise he gives to us when we give 'Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. ' 2 Corinthians 9:10-11

• You have to taste the benefits of Giving to God. Many who have tasted have commercialised this in ministry to make it as if he is an investment banker. That’s not what God is intending here.

• You may not have money, but you may give time to God, in return God gives his peace / joy and his holy spirit filling you, it’s not some thing you can measure by money or get by offering a money to some one, it’s a generous gift from God. Its the rich eternal gift that you can get from God.

Equality of Giving

'as it is written: “The one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little.” ' 2 Corinthians 8:15

• Paul is illustrating how God could be trusted to meet everyone’s needs no matter how big or how small they are. In the Exodus passage the children of Israel were in the wilderness and they could not find enough food for themselves and so they cried out to God and God provided food from heaven which was called manna.

• God provided manna. Manna was very thin; it was white flakes and they would fall on the ground every morning. Now God told the Israelites to gather as much as they needed only for that day. Now some gathered more than others did, because their needs were greater and some gathered little. but one didn’t have too much and one didn’t have too little. It was exactly what they needed. He said, “Don’t you leave any there.” In other words, “You take what I give you, but don’t leave any. Don’t store it up.”

• Paul said it was a good place to start. Start with what you have. God’s given you an abundance; use out of that abundance to take care of His people. Paul is emphasizing that we can trust God to be the One who balances the books of our giving

Summary

Questions to ask yourself

• Do you give out of compulsion or do you give cheerfully ?

• When you give , do you give with passion or with some grudge ?

• Do you view Giving to God as investment banker, in other words giving to God with the expectation God will give you back 4 fold of what you gave ?

• Where do you feel the source of your blessing is from, do you feel you have got it all in your own strength or all from God ? Be honest with yourself when you ask this question as most of us tell it’s from God, but their actions tell its because of their own effort they have got.

Reading this passage, I pray God’s grace inspires you to give more back to God what he has given to us.