We can see generosity in each of the characteristics of "The Man" we've studied thus far. Jesus gave Himself selflessly as a Man of Prayer, Man of Compassion, and a Man of Courage. He is constantly giving. It makes sense in that He lacks nothing, so what could we possibly give Him? But it introduces a very peculiar thing that ties directly to our application of being a Man of Generosity. Jesus is very interested in our response to Him and His giving. Paul and other writers of the New Testament also are very moved by people's responses to the gospel and their display of faith. You might even stretch this into next week's topic of Faith, where it seems Jesus was hoping for His disciples to respond in faith in the face of the storm when they were scared to death. So, in all cases, it seems very important to the Lord as to what our responses are. Now, we can definitely take note of this and apply it to our lives. How can we better respond to God? How can we better respond to people in our relationships?
Take responding to people, for starters. How validating and valuable is it when someone listens to you and deems your commentary as important? Do that unto others. Without stating the profoundly obvious about this point, consider relating to people as coming from a spirit of cooperation and a willingness to participate. This is a giving of yourself and it directly impacts someone else. Oh, how I long for more spirit of cooperation in the world today! There is so much guardedness, fear, pride, bitterness, hardness, selfishness, etc. that block the potential for good, productive relationships and communication within. May the Holy Spirit convict us where this hits. May we better respond to the Spirit's nudging to allow an interruption, lend a listening ear, validate someone's opinion or idea, comfort the broken-hearted, whatever the need.
In response to God, there are not strong enough words to describe the importance. He has gone all the way for us. He has done everything for us. He has completely proven His love for us. He is extending the offer and invitation to us. "Who do you say I am?" Will you set apart Christ as Lord of your heart? Will you accept the gift? Paul spoke like this in imploring people to respond to the gospel, "you make my joy complete". God says a multitude of angels rejoice at the response of one lost soul. It's about our response, people! Yes, we can get excited about this! In fact, if I may, He provided a very intimate and exciting picture of this response. He painted the picture in marriage. First of all, there is no more perfect picture that depicts the relationship God extends to His people than marriage. Marriage is the perfect symbol of unity and relationship of love. Now, the younger readers in the audience may want to skip this part, but in the sacredness of marriage, intimacy peaks during sexual intercourse. To simply support my point, a man desires for his wife to respond to his approaches to this intimacy. To be turned down or rejected is demoralizing. He hopes for an active partner, not a bump on a log that isn't participating. He longs for her to enjoy him and join in the fun. Whew. Is it getting warm in here? I hope you get the point. Jump to higher ground with me. God says we are His bride. He is the groom. Can you connect the dots? He is pursuing us. He is advancing upon us. He has come all the way, extending His invitation. He is longing, hoping, wanting, desiring our....response. Oh yeah. And it's good, by the way. Remember, this is His idea.
More on generosity: in red letters, we read of giving a drink to the thirsty, giving food to the hungry, giving care to the sick, giving visitation to the imprisoned. These things are mentioned as actions that seem to be very important to the Way. These seem to be evidences of connection to the King of heaven. They are that important to Him. How important? They are practical actions of living out the "second" greatest commandment He gave us. You notice that? He gave us. I put "second" in quotations because I really don't believe there is a list of priorities or of graded importance when it comes to these commandments. In reading the entire counsel of the Word, we find that if we love our brothers, we are loving God. And if we love God, we will love our brothers. Tracking? This is how we know we are "of" God and "in" God. This is a nice peach on a peach tree, fruit from the Master Gardener that proves we are directly connected to the Vine. And He says because of this, we are welcomed into the wedding feast and the biggest celebration life has ever prepared. Further, since God is love, when we love our brothers, we are "Godding" them, if you will. It's a verb. We are being God to them, or God-like. We are an extension of God to them. We are loving them like He loves them and like He loves us. In effect, when we do this "Godding", we are showing and living out our response to God, saying "I believe in this. I can't help but do this. This is what He would do. This is what's important to Him. The Holy Spirit says this is right. This is the Way. This pleases the Father. This is what He wants His people to do. This is fulfilling His gospel. This is reaching the world in its fallen state, just as how He reached me in my poor state. This is God's will for my life."
What areas of your life come to mind when I mention being the Man of Generosity? Is there room to improve? Is there a conviction to make a change? Look at your marriage...look at your kids...look at your job...look at your checkbook...look at your service...look at your schedule...look at your hobbies...look at your efforts...look at your time...look at your self. Where can you be more generous? How is that going to look? I encourage you to think along the lines of it looking like your response in these areas. May the Spirit empower us to have a response of generosity in all areas of our lives.
