Are you a generous person? Honestly, think about it: are you generous with your time, money, energy, knowledge, and resources?
Let me reframe the question: Does God think you are a generous person? This is not a guilt trip but an interesting and important question, maybe one we should ask ourselves more often.
At a GenerousChurch event, Tim Keller highlights one of Jesus’s sayings, which Paul writes in Acts 20: “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” We often think of this verse in the context of money, but in reality, Keller remarks that these few words are the heart of the gospel message. The theme of generosity is lived out through Jesus, who gave of Himself. Keller says, “Unless we are promiscuously generous with our earthly resources, we may not truly understand the gospel or our Savior.”
I began questioning my own generosity while hosting a Journey of Generosity event for our Missouri Baptist Foundation Board of Trustees. A “JOG,” (as they are called) is a 24-hour retreat where a small group of people come together to study God’s Word about generosity and spend time with others while leaving plenty of time for the Holy Spirit to speak.
After the event, I felt led to create a separate bank account called generosity. I set up all of my church giving (tithing) to run through that account and outlined several other ministries to support. So now, from every paycheck, I deposit an amount into my planned generosity account to give to my church and ministries. In addition, I also set aside a little more each month for what I call unplanned generosity.
By separating this into one account, I can more clearly see whether I have been stingy or generous while also allowing me to meet unplanned needs such as helping a person who needs diapers for their newborn or one with a medical bill or even buying something at a fundraiser to support a good cause. It is a journey, for sure, and I have so much further to go. While a generosity account helps me, it might not help you, but it always helps me think about the question of generosity. MBF would love to help your church host a Journey of Generosity event to encourage life-long generosity. You can learn more about their ministry at generousgiving.org.
So, I ask you again: Are you a generous person? It is challenging to prove that you are generous without providing any evidence that you are.