{"id":4818,"date":"2016-01-01T15:59:22","date_gmt":"2016-01-01T20:59:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/?p=2895"},"modified":"2017-01-05T16:41:49","modified_gmt":"2017-01-05T16:41:49","slug":"do-you-have-a-generosity-plan-for-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/2016\/01\/do-you-have-a-generosity-plan-for-2016.html","title":{"rendered":"Do you have a generosity plan for 2016?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Baseball\"<\/a>\u201cHe who has a generous eye will be blessed\u201d (Proverbs 22:9 NKJV).<\/em><\/p>\n

What does it\u00a0mean\u00a0to have a \u201cgenerous eye?\u201d\u00a0The Hebrew word translated \u201cgenerous\u201d might also be translated as \u201cbountiful, merciful, or good.\u201d A generous eye is a good eye.<\/p>\n

When I played Little League\u00a0baseball as a kid, and stood fast at bat on a bad pitch, the coach would yell, \u201cGood eye Combs!\u201d Referring to the way I didn\u2019t swing. You see, to\u00a0have a \u201cgood eye\u201d in baseball means\u00a0that the batter is looking for a good pitch to swing at.<\/p>\n

But what does it mean to have a \u201cgenerous eye?\u201d I think it means to be looking for an opportunity to be generous. It means to live with a predisposition for intentional generosity. Just as a good batter visualizes the type of pitch he wants to hit, so the one with a generous eye has a plan for being generous.<\/p>\n

A generosity plan?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Who ever heard of having a generosity plan? Plans to save, plans to pay off debt, plans to buy a house or fund your children\u2019s college education\u2026 these are plans we\u2019ve heard of and hopefully made. But a plan to give stuff away? That\u2019s crazy!<\/p>\n

Yet, God\u2019s Word promises that the one with a \u201cgenerous eye will be blessed.\u201d Those with a predisposition towards generosity will experience the blessing of God. It is God Himself who promises to generously bless the one, who in generosity, blesses others.<\/p>\n

So, how might we\u00a0make a generosity plan? Here are a few questions to consider that may help:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. How much did you give to your church, to missions and other charities last year?<\/li>\n
  2. Did you give what you think you should have given?<\/li>\n
  3. What would a generous amount have been? (Keep in mind that 10% of our income belongs to God as a tithe to our local church. This is an expression of faith and obedience. So, generosity has an eye to exceed this amount in giving.)<\/li>\n
  4. Where do you need to reduce spending on yourself in order to make margin for generosity this year?<\/li>\n
  5. Do you have a plan to\u00a0keep\u00a0some money on hand for those moments when God stirs your heart to give or help someone in need? (I try to keep some cash on hand with me that I call my \u201cJesus money.\u201d When Jesus stirs my heart, I give it away.)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Those who desire to receive God\u2019s blessing have to stop blessing themselves so much to make room for\u00a0blessing others. This won\u2019t happen by accident. We must be intentional about it. As the apostle Paul said, \u201c\u2026\u00a0arrange in advance for the\u00a0gift\u00a0you have promised, so that it may be ready\u00a0as a willing gift\u201d (2 Corinthians 9:5).<\/p>\n

    I\u2019m evaluating my 2015 generosity and asking God to enable me to be more generous in 2016. I want to experience the blessing of God that comes through having an eye for intentional generosity. I\u2019m making a generosity plan.<\/p>\n

    Will you join with me in praying to have\u00a0a more \u201cgenerous eye\u201d in 2016?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    \u201cHe who has a generous eye will be blessed\u201d (Proverbs 22:9 NKJV). What does it\u00a0mean\u00a0to have a \u201cgenerous eye?\u201d\u00a0The Hebrew word translated \u201cgenerous\u201d might also be translated as \u201cbountiful, merciful, or good.\u201d A generous eye is a good eye. When I played Little League\u00a0baseball as a kid, and stood fast at bat on a bad<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2889,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2061,1,2062],"tags":[2365,2035,2366,2335,2182,2070,2052],"location":[],"class_list":["post-4818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-religion","category-uncategorized","category-weblogs","tag-blessing","tag-generosity","tag-generous","tag-gift","tag-giving","tag-god","tag-jesus"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4818"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4818\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4950,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4818\/revisions\/4950"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/oyb\/2889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4818"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=4818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}