Cause for Thanksgiving

DEVOTION

2 CORINTHIANS

CAUSE FOR THANKSGVING

2 Cor 9:10-11

10 Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. 11 You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.

NIV

We have to be careful here not to give to get, yet it surely seems as we give we will also get more back. That saying, “You cannot out give God” must certainly have come from someone reading this passage. Now once again we have to remember what was said before about giving from our hearts, not under compulsion but of a free will. We have to remember that we give before there is a need and we give according to what we have; sharing enough, but not so much that our own family suffers. Yet in what we give, we see that God will also supply. He is the supplier of all we have in the first place and so he knows how much we can give, and when we do give, he will increase our ability to give more. If we have an open heart to God, hearing his voice, being sensitive to the Spirit and give when we are called upon by the Spirit, God will see to it that we will always have enough, even more than enough, so that we can give more than we have ever given before. But we have to also remember that is not giving to the run our church for the church is not the needy. If we give in the church, it has to be for the expressed reason for a joint effect to meet the needs of the needy. All the funds collected have to be dedicated to the cause; otherwise this promise of God does not apply. Now there is nothing wrong with paying the bills to run the church. There is nothing wrong with having all the expenses of a building, paid pastoral staff, support staff, and all the stuff needed to “Do church” , but all that does not qualify as giving to the those in need. No if we would like to see the blessings of God’s promise here, we simply need to give to those in need when the opportunity presence itself to us. As in the case of the Corinthians they were giving to another gathering of believers who were in need. This of course required some kind of interaction, or at least an intercessor, like Paul, to make the need known. But in either case, it requires a sense of communication between one church and another. This would imply we cannot afford to be an isolated church, we need to fellowship with others, we need to know how others are doing, are they well, or in need. Perhaps this is how the Spirit will do his work. But if we what to be the cause of others giving thanksgiving to God, according to this statement we need to give. Those who we give to will thank God and we having been increased will thank God.  Giving gives cause for thanksgivin