Exodus 25:1 The Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the people of Israel, that they take for me a contribution. From every man whose heart moves him you shall receive the contribution for me
Exodus 35:5-29 Take from among you a contribution to the LORD. Whoever is of a generous heart, let him bring the LORD’s contribution: gold, silver, and bronze;
Deuteronomy 16:16 They shall not appear before the LORD empty-handed. Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the LORD your God that he has given you.
1 Chronicles 29:1-30 Moreover, in addition to all that I have provided for the holy house, I have a treasure of my own of gold and silver, and because of my devotion to the house of my God I give it to the house of my God:
Exodus 35:21 And they came, everyone whose heart stirred him, and everyone whose spirit moved him, and brought the LORD’s contribution
1 Chronicles 29:9 Then the people rejoiced because they had given willingly, for with a whole heart they had offered freely to the LORD.
2 Corinthians 8:12 For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have.
2 Corinthians 9:7 Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
Mark 10:19 And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
A generous heart is a choice to give of what has been given to you by God. Do we sometimes think we have worked for what we have and it is ours, all ours, with no thought of it being a gift from God? Our brains, our job, our physical ability, our place in life is all from God, apart from those consequences of choices we have made outside of honoring, serving, following and obeying God. What we have are blessings and gifts from God.
I was thinking about Job and how he was blessed and then it was all taken away. Some may look at this and say that it is not fair. But if we were able to speak to Job I think he would tell us even when it was taken away he was blessed by a deeper understanding and knowledge of God. In the end all and more was given back to Job.
We look at what we have and think it is not enough. We strive to get more and more to buy more, travel more, experience more and more stuff that will never satisfy our soul. We keep, we hoard, we want.
What would happen if we chose to be generous with what we have been blessed with? What would our lives be like free from want and filled with giving? A heart choice to be generous with our time, talent, and money are never bad. However, a choice to not be generous leads us down paths that could end up not honoring or serving God.
