How To Be Generous With Money

I was recently reading Kings Cross by Timothy Keller. In the book, he retold the story about the rich young ruler who asked Jesus what else he needed to do to have eternal life. The question itself was interesting – he had already done all he could do based on rules, but still felt empty. Jesus knew exactly how the young man felt, for Jesus too had left the riches of heaven and given it all up to become poor – to be here on earth, talking to, among others, this rich young ruler. He did this out of obedience to the Father. And Jesus tells the young man, sell all you have and then come to me.

The jist of the whole encounter was that nothing can come between us and God. And it’s not just money – it’s anything that takes the place of God in our lives.

I love the quote in the book – when money becomes more a scorecard than a tool, we are in trouble.

One reason we need to be generous is because it helps us keep God first in our hearts and lives.

Randy Alcorn had a great illustration in a book called the Treasure Principle. Suppose a person buys an expensive gift and then delivers it to it’s intended recipient by way of the FedEx guy. A week later, he calls the intended recipient to see how they enjoyed the gift. To his surprise, they had never received it. He calls FedEx, tracks down the driver and is astonished to find out he had the gift and was enjoying it himself. Randy goes onto state the obvious – the gifts we have from the Lord are intended to be used to pass along. We are the FedEx driver, entrusted with blessings that need to be delivered to others. That’s our job.

How to become generous with money:

1) realize money is a tool

2) realize it’s all God’s

3) realize the beauty generosity creates

4) realize how much generosity changes us

5 realize how powerful generous giving can be in the kingdom

Don’t wait to become generous. Right now is the best time to begin. Be generous today.