How to Become Generous

We all would like to be generous people.  We would like to be known as generous.  But how to you develop a generous heart?  

In the first century the Jerusalem church was struggling because of persecution.  So, Paul decided to raise an offering from the different churches that he visited to give aid to the Jerusalem believers.  Of all the churches, the Macedonian churches proved to be the most generous.  Paul described them in 2 Cor. 8:

1. They too were suffering from a severe trial.
2. They were experiencing extreme poverty.
3. Yet they gave not according to their ability, but beyond their ability.
4. They gave freely, not out of compulsion.
5. In fact, they begged Paul to let them participate.  Due to their poverty, Paul must have tried to talk them out of giving.
6. They called the act of giving a "privilege."

The churches in Macedonia were generous.  Their generosity was on a supernatural level.  The cool thing is that Paul tells us the source of their generosity in 2 Corinthians 8:5.  “Instead, they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us by God’s will.”  They gave themselves to God first.  That's the key to generosity.  The foundation of generosity.  Surrender your life to Jesus Christ.  Dedicate all that you are, and all that you have to Him.  Then the generosity will flow naturally.

The Bible commands us to be generous.  It says that God is generous, and we are called to imitate God.  It says that we are to live like stewards, using our resources to further God's kingdom rather than to live like kings.  But none of this matters to you if you have not given yourself to God.  If you have not surrendered your life to Christ, then who cares what God wants, or how God wants you to live?  That's why the foundation of a generous life is to give yourself to God.

Do you want to be a generous person?  It starts with a personal commitment to God.  Surrender your life.  Make Him the Lord of your life.  Put Him in charge of all that you are, and all that you have.  Give Him complete control, complete ownership, complete rights to your life.  Then God can pour resources into your life so that He can use you to fund His work on the earth.