Abundance #3—Sufficient Abundance

Do what you have purposed in your heart; not grudgingly or under compulsion; for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed. 2 Corinthians 9:7–8

The only way we can be the cheerful givers God loves is if we are cheerful receivers. Cheerful givers are cheerful because they know the supply from which they give will never run out. Cheerful givers are unafraid regarding the future, because they know God’s self-sufficiency is the reason for his gift-efficiency: an infinite supply will always suffice. Since gifts to others come from the portion God gives to us, certainty that God’s provision will suffice not only for us, but also for them as necessary. So even more than looking to God’s self-sufficiency, we look to his grace; we look to his acting out of the joy he experiences in his fullness to bring us to a point where we can experience the same joy. We rely on the fact that God’s Rejoicing And Causing Enjoyment is the process by which he dispenses enough good into our lives, that we will have sufficient for ourselves to be as overflowingly joyful as he is. No wonder God loves cheerful givers. Our joy as we give reflects the extravagant joy he expressed as he gave to us.

Everything I have, O Lord, is a gift of your grace. Grant me so much joy in your gifts that I want to see others find that same joy as they receive my gifts; let me be a channel of your ever-abundant grace.