Philippians 4.19 NLT




'And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.'
Generosity is a beautiful thing. I had the blessing of a very generous aunt. She never married and was a devoted follower of Jesus. She was generous with her time especially to neighbours who were in need. Although she held a very senior executive role she was always happy to do the most menial jobs and would think nothing of it. She died whilst taking a neighbour to hospital and that seemed to sum up her life. She was always very generous with her money and was always looking for creative ways of helping people and planted firmly in my teenage mind the blessing of being generous.
Christians are not automatically generous and the apostle Paul notes that the generosity of the Philippian church stood in marked contrast to many of the others. As he brings this letter to a close he thanks them once again for their gifts and describes them as being “a sweet-smelling sacrifice that is acceptable and pleasing to God”. When we give financial support to one another God notices and is blessed by our action, because in our giving we are reflecting the generosity that God first showed to us.


However generous we might be, our generosity is only ever a pale reflection of the generosity of God. This beautiful letter has described the way in which God has poured out his love to us in the Lord Jesus Christ. And now Paul assures his readers that they can look to the future with confidence knowing that God will continue to supply them with everything that they need. God loves us too much to give us everything we want but we can be sure that, whatever our circumstances or our needs, God will perfectly provide for us.




QUESTION: Who has inspired you by their generosity, and in what ways do you seek to be generous to others?
PRAYER: Thank you, loving God, that you have always been generous to me and always will be. Amen

Released on 23 Jul 2021