give

Opening Prayer: Father, you give to me with a lavish hand, you do not withhold from me of your great grace and mercy.  Let me live and serve you also with a generous heart.  In the name of your Son, who gave his all.  Amen. (Disciplines for the Inner Life by Bob Benson and Michael W. Benson)

Scripture: 2 Corinthians 9:6-11

Journal: Where and how is God asking you to give yourself these days?

Reflection: Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge your harvest of righteousness.  You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.  (2 Corinthians 9:10-11)

     Giving is a little bit tricky.  Because, in reality, we can only give what we have been given.  If the sower is not given the seed in the first place, then he has nothing of value to sow in the fields (and the lives) to which he has been given.  Luckily, we are given the promise that if we are open and attentive to receiving it, there is One who is able and willing to supply, and even increase, this seed.

     The problem is that, oftentimes, we try so hard to give that which we do not possess.  And when we do this, abundance simply will not happen.  We cannot produce abundance (an enlarged harvest of righteousness) on our own, no matter how hard we try.  We can only give—fully and freely—that which we have been given.  So it seems kind of important that we know exactly what that is.  For this seed wasn't given to us to hoard for ourselves, but to be scattered abroad in the fields of this world, that it might produce a harvest.

Prayer

Closing Prayer: O Lord, help me to learn to give fully and freely that which I have to give, and to stop trying so hard to give that which I don't.