We live in a culture that prizes getting more than giving. Advertisers constantly tell us we don’t have enough, while inflation and bills pressure us to hold tighter to money and possessions. As God’s children, instead of a having a mindset of abundance, we often struggle with a mindset of scarcity, doubting God’s provision and anxious about having enough. Yet, God is generous! And we were created in His image to be generous too!
In the apostle Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, he urged them to them to excel in the grace of giving by pointing to the Macedonian churches, who, though poor and afflicted, gave generously beyond their means, and by reminding them of Christ’s supreme example of generosity. We can cultivate the habit of generosity to excel in the grace of giving.
“The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God” (Romans 8:16 ESV). In this verse, Paul continues unfolding the privileges of those who are “in Christ Jesus.” One of the most precious is this: we are not only justified and adopted as God’s children, but we also have an inner
“For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us….” (Romans 8:3–4 ESV). The law is righteous,
“When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?” (Psalm 8:3–4 ESV). David composed this psalm as a song of praise, likely inspired
“The son of Jonathan was Merib-baal, and Merib-baal was the father of Micah.” (1 Chronicles 8:34 ESV). This verse appears in a genealogy of the tribe of Benjamin, tracing the descendants of King Saul through his son Jonathan. The name Merib-baal here refers to the same person known elsewhere in Scripture as Mephibosheth (2 Samuel
“Now Elisha came to Damascus. Ben-hadad the king of Syria was sick. And when it was told him, ‘The man of God has come here,’ the king said to Hazael, ‘… inquire of the Lord through him, saying, “Shall I recover from this sickness?”’ (2 Kings 8:7–8 ESV). Elisha traveled to Damascus, the capital of
“Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus” (Acts 8:35 ESV). When the Ethiopian eunuch asked Philip about the identity of the subject in Isaiah 53, he “told him the Good News about Jesus.” For the eunuch had turned to where Isaiah wrote, “He was
“Then Solomon said, ‘The LORD has said that he would dwell in thick darkness’” (1 Kings 8:12 ESV). As the Ark was placed in the Holy of Holies, Solomon’s newly built Temple was suddenly filled with a dense cloud. The priests, who had entered with reverence and celebration, were now driven out by the overwhelming
“And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and though she had spent all her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone. She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, and immediately her discharge of blood ceased” (Luke 8:43-44 ESV). A
‘“Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him’ (Luke 8:39 ESV). When Jesus freed the man living in the tombs of the Gerasenes of demon possession, he begged to go with Jesus. The man