Daily Devotional • August 4
A Reading from 2 Corinthians 9:6-15
6 The point is this: the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. 7 Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not regretfully or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work. 9 As it is written,
“He scatters abroad; he gives to the poor;
his righteousness endures forever.”
10 He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. 11 You will be enriched in every way for your great generosity, which will produce thanksgiving to God through us, 12 for the rendering of this ministry not only supplies the needs of the saints but also overflows with many thanksgivings to God. 13 Through the testing of this ministry you glorify God by your obedience to the confession of the gospel of Christ and by the generosity of your partnership with them and with all others, 14 while they long for you and pray for you because of the surpassing grace of God that he has given you. 15 Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!
Meditation
The imperative to give isn’t what I find most challenging about today’s passage. Sitting through three decades’ worth of stewardship sermons has sufficiently convinced me of my need to tithe. But I am caught up on one word in particular: “God loves a cheerful giver.”
Thanks to the advent of online banking and convenience of set-it-and-forget-it auto payments, my charitable practices can best be described as “consistent,” “punctual,” and “reliably withdrawn on the 15th of the month” — all words that could just as accurately describe my car payments.
This sort of rote, emotionless approach to faith-based giving doesn’t square with the rich vision described by Paul here.
In the pursuit of giving faithfully — itself a good thing — perhaps we’ve set our sights too low. What would it look like to not simply pay our monthly dues, but be cheerful in our giving, recognizing the great privilege it is to sow into God’s mission here on earth? Tithing to our home church ought to be a given. But are we enthusiastically seeking investment opportunities in other gospel-centered and gospel-driven work?
If we let it, our generosity will form us, rewiring our brains and providing the much-needed reminder that “all things come from You, and from Your own hand we have given to You.” It will rightly orient us to the not-yet-seen reality of God’s coming kingdom. And it will serve as a testimony to a world bent on anxious hoarding and frivolous spending, pointing to a gracious God who provides us “with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, [we] may share abundantly in every good work.”
Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!
Lauren Anderson-Cripps is director of communications and marketing at Nashotah House Theological Seminary and writes for a variety of publications, including The Living Church. Lauren lives in Wisconsin with her husband, Sam, and their dog, Tennessee Jed.
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Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer
Today we pray for:
Community of St. Mary, Eastern Province
The Anglican Church of Kenya