And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work. As it is written: “He has dispersed abroad, He has given to the poor, His righteousness endures forever.” Now may He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food, supply and multiply the see you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness while you are enriched in everything for all liberality. Which causes thanksgiving through us to God.” 2 Corinthians 9:8-11
God We are created in the image and likeness of God, but we are not God, He is the Most High God and His ways are perfect and His wisdom is unfathomable. We have an open invitation from God us to come and sit at His feet and learn His ways. God issued an Invitation to all people in Isaiah 55:1-3, “Ho everyone who thirsts, come to the waters, and you who have no money, come buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend money for what is not bread and your wages on things that do not satisfy? Listen carefully to ME and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance. Incline your ear and come to Me, hear and your soul shall live; I will make you an everlasting covenant with you.” After His invitation to come to Him, He gives us the secret of living a blessed life. “Seek the Lord while He may be found, call unto Him while He is near, Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord. and He will have mercy on him and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.” God is inviting each of personally to come to Him. No matter how long we live or how much we study, we will never fully know everything there is to know about our amazing God. The more we seek Him, the more we will find Him. God told Jeremiah in chapter 29 verse 13, “And you will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart.” God so delights in us, that He invites us to seek Him and find Him. The next thing we must do is change our ways. It is often said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. What if we would believe God and do things His way, what kind of results would we see to the problems that are trying to weigh us down. God is telling us that we have a responsibility to fulfill. Perhaps you are like me and there are some things that need to be different, or some mountains you need Him to move. This verse gives us two steps we need to take to initiate change. Sinners are called to quit sinning (and some believers need to examine their life and quit the sin that displeases God) and for the unrighteous to change their thoughts. Proverbs 23:7 “For as a man thinketh in his heart so is he.” God’s word clarifies what are thoughts should be. “Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are noble, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure and whatsoever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report. If there is any virtue, if there is anything praiseworthy, think on these things.” Philippians 4:8. According to 1 Corinthians 10:5 the only way we control our though process is “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ.” “Let him return to the Lord. and He will have mercy on him and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.” Some of our belief systems are based on man’s religion and attempt to control other human beings and the doctrine we hold dear can even be contradictory to who God really is. Too many denominations have mad God out to be a cruel and angry God who is waiting for you to mess up. While we will stand before God someday, He is not a gotcha God that is waiting with a lightning bolt ready to get us when we mess up. “The Lord is not slack concerning His promises, as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering to us ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9. Isaiah 55:1 continues “My thoughts are not your thoughts, and My ways are not your ways,” Says the Lord, “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so ae My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rein comes down and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but waters the earth and makes it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater.” Our God is a generous God! Not only does He give the sower seed, He also gives bread to someone who only eats. God is able to make all grace abound to you!
The Message Translation has a beautiful version of 2 Corinthians 9:8-11 “God can pour on the blessings in astonishing ways so that you’re ready for anything and everything, more than just ready to do what needs to be done. As one psalmist puts it, He throws caution to the winds, giving to the needy in reckless abandon. His rightliving, right-giving ways never run out, never wears out. The most generous God who gives seed to the sower that becomes bread for your meals is more extravagant with you. He gives you something you can then give away, robust is God, wealthy in very way, producing in us great praise to God.” Do you see God as a generous God who is extravagantly pouring out blessing on you? Sadly, too many modern churches have made the blessings of God to be sin. God is generous and He lavish His gifts and love on His people. The other side of the pendulum in modern churches teaches to seek things. We are to seek God and then He will add all these other things unto us. This verse ends with “He gives us something that we can then give away.” God wants to bless us so abundantly that we can easily give to others. Jesus was a giver, on 2 different occasions He made sure the multitudes who came to see Him had more than enough to eat. After He blessed 5 loaves and 2 fish and feed 5,000 men (the women and children were not counted). After everyone had all they wanted, 12 baskets of leftovers were picked up. God is extravagant giving more than we can think or ask.
The last of Corinthians 9:11 “He gives you something you can then give away, robust is God, wealthy in very way, producing in us great praise to God.” One of the reasons God desires to bless us so that we can be a blessing and bring Him glory who do not have a relationship with God. “Now the Lord said to Abram: “Get out of your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation, I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing.” If we are truly Christ-like, we will be extravagant givers. I wonder what would happen if the body of Christ would really get hold of the generosity and goodness of God.2 Corinthians 9:7b-8 “God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. God has put laws of seedtime and harvest in place and he promised in Luke 6:38 “Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.” God watches how we treat others and He even notices what we do for the poor. Proverbs 19:17 “Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will repay him for his deed.” I heard a story about a father who went to his son’s open house at school and the teacher kept talking about how generous his son was. Every time there was a charity or someone in need the little boy always brought above and beyond what the rest of the class did together. The father grinned knowing that his son had full access to his change bucket at home and he could go and get money anytime there was a need. The son knew who his supply was and all he had to is go to the father’s abundant resources. Do you know who your supply is? Find a way this week to be generous to someone else and see how good it feels to walk in a life of generosity.
Cathy Nesmith