Generosity - Member Devotional
Read Psalm 104
The beauty of creator God’s provision floods over you as you read this Psalm. God is in control. He commands the seasons. He created all things, and when he looks upon them, he calls them good. Psalm 104 shows this truth, but also consistently highlights the generosity of God in that creation and provision.
He doesn’t just provide water in the valley, he makes the springs gush forth (v10). He waters trees abundantly (v16). When he opens his hand, it is filled with good things (v28).
God is lavishly generous.
But, I find in this season where my comfortable world - the supposed ease of life and progress - feels threatened, I can feel numb to that generosity. It seems despite all of God’s provision, I can feel dissatisfied. like somehow, it’s not enough. I can see pillars of my own kingdom crumbling around me, and it’s easy to believe that is God being unkind.
I am prone to forget that God’s generosity is not just his blessing, but it is his very heart.
When we lose sight of God’s generosity, we become entitled. Our hearts become hardened as we forget his grace. We want his generous gifts added to our independent lives, and in that independence, if the blessings go away, it causes us to question God’s love.
We need to be reminded that God has always had, and will always have, a generous heart. It is in his very character. From the dawn of creation, through this current time, and forevermore, His generosity gushes forth.
And if our own kingdoms are crumbling, that doesn’t say anything about his generosity- it just exposes the things we misplace our hope in.
This is good news.
We need to be reminded that we can rest all of our hope in our generous God, the author and perfector of our salvation.
A good way to remind our weary souls of this is to be generous ourselves. To awaken the Image created within us, the implant of God’s generous heart. Generosity in our own lives reminds our hearts and souls of Gods generosity. And the beauty of the Kingdom of God is that a people living in the freedom of generosity, reflecting the generous character of God, really can change circumstances.
A generous person can change a family. A generous family can change a neighborhood. A generous church can change a city.
Not on their own strength, but by Christ in them. By the freedom and peace His presence brings.
I am grateful that generosity is a central value of our church. I pray we continue to be shaped by this distinctive, and that God’s generosity can be seen in and through us; for the glory of the Lord, and the good of the world.
Pray
- Pray for the spirit to awaken your soul to God’s generous heart.
- Confess the ways in which you rest your hope in your own kingdom.
- Ask for your eyes to be opened to the situations you are free to be generous in, even in these challenging times.