Dave's Diary

Daily Reading: 2 Corinthians 8:1-9

“… We want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. ² In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. ⁷ … (S)ee that you also excel in this grace of giving.“

In encouraging the Corinthian churches, the apostle Paul referred to Christian generosity as “the grace of giving“. He pointed to how the Macedonian churches had been given grace to give generously and joyfully to the famine-struck Christians in Jerusalem, even out of their own state of extreme poverty in Macedonia. And now he encouraged the Corinthians also to “excel in this grace of giving“.

Giving is a “grace”. It is an act of passing on God’s undeserved, unmerited love in Christ to others – of allowing God’s grace to flow through us to others in a very practical, material way. Having received God’s grace in our own lives motivates us to live in grace towards others, and one expression of that grace is to give generously to meet their material needs.

The fact that the Macedonian Christians gave out of a position of extreme poverty is a clear indicator that generosity has nothing to do with the size of the gift we give, and everything to do with the sacrifice we make in order to give. It is not a generous act of grace to give a lot when we still have a lot left over for ourselves. But giving in such a way that we have very little left over for our own needs is truly an expression of the grace of God.

Lord, grant me the grace of true generosity today I pray, and show me the needs to which You are calling me to allow Your grace to overflow through me in acts of generosity. Amen.