Proverbs 11:24-25
I have noticed something about myself. I can be incredibly generous with things I do not care about. If you need one of the seventeen charging cables sitting in a drawer at my house, I am your guy. Take two. Generosity gets much more involved when God starts pointing toward something I actually value. That’s because generosity is not really about what we have. It reveals something about what has us.
Proverbs says, “Give freely and become more wealthy; be stingy and lose everything. The generous will prosper; those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed” (Proverbs 11:24–25, NLT).
There is something interesting happening in those verses. We normally assume generosity is primarily about the person receiving. Someone needs something, we give it and they are blessed. But Proverbs says generosity also changes the giver. Maybe that is because generosity forces us to look beyond ourselves.
Most of us naturally organize life around our own needs, schedules and priorities. We think about what we need to accomplish today, what we need to buy, where we need to go and whether anyone has touched the leftovers we were saving for lunch. Without realizing it, life can slowly become centered around us. Generosity interrupts that.
Generosity notices someone else. It sees the person who could use encouragement. It recognizes the family going through a difficult season. It makes room at the table. It gives someone our attention when we are tempted to stare at our phone. It asks a wonderfully Christlike question: “What has God given me that I could use to bless someone else?” Every time we respond, our hearts become a little less centered on ourselves.
That is one reason generosity is such an important part of following Jesus. God does not call us to generosity because He is short on resources. He calls us to generosity because He is shaping us into people who look like His Son. Jesus lived with open hands. He gave His time, His attention, His compassion and ultimately His life.
So today, look around. Someone near you probably needs encouragement. Give something. Listen patiently to someone. Share your time. Meet a need. Open your home. Pick up the check. When we open our hands to bless someone else, God often uses that moment to open our hearts a little wider also.