One of the quirks of studying science is that every time you move up a level, the tutor says, ‘Forget everything you learned at Junior/Leaving Cert level – this is what’s really going on.’ It’s kind of like that when you learn about generosity. If you grew up in church, try and remember what it was like learning about giving for the first time. Maybe it went something like this: ‘give 20c from your pocket money, and God will give something back to you too.’ That’s not a terrible way to start learning. After all, in the rest of today’s verse, Jesus goes on to say ‘give and it will be given to you, pressed down, spilling over.’ But it doesn’t tell you about the deeper things of generosity. As you grow in maturity as a child of God, you start to see what’s really happening under the surface of generosity.
You discover that when Jesus said ‘if you lose your life you’ll find it ‘ (Matthew 10:39), He meant that you’ll become so unafraid of losing anything – money, clothes, phones – that giving those things away won’t feel like a loss at all. Why? Because God, your Father, owns everything, and has made ‘all things yours’ (1 Corinthians 3:21). Let go of a tight grip on your possessions and you’ll find the God who owns them and more. Life isn’t a card deck where you get dealt a random hand of God’s generosity. God owns everything and He’s made it yours. Give and give away and you’re not going to miss out on anything.
What now?
Tidy your room/desk/kitchen. As you pick things up, say to God ‘this belongs to You, Lord.’ If you come across something that would really bless someone else, give it to them.
