If we live our lives thinking that life is all about what we can get, our promotion, our success, our opportunities, building our name, things coming to us, benefiting us, we will live very small lives.
Even if we end up owning the world, spending all we have on ourselves, our exorbitant consumption won’t make us happy. Making a name for ourselves, becoming someone, being famous, won’t make us happy either.
Our lives remain very small when we are the object of our doing and getting. If we live like we are the center around which the rest of the world orbits, our lives will shrink away to nothing.
The world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller, Proverbs 11:24b (MSG).
That way of living is the anti-culture to Christianity. It is the way of the world. The world is concerned with getting but God wants us to be very concerned with giving.
If we spend the best of ourselves giving to others, lifting others, serving and loving others; even at our own personal and sometimes painful cost, then we are imitating Christ’s love. This is the Christianity Jesus wants us to be living.
By our love, care and generosity for others, our life shows that Jesus is the true center around which everything else orbits.
Generosity changes the focus from our own small and self-centered ways to Jesus’ gargantuan love and grace for all people and His desire for us to be carriers of that love and grace.
We begin to see the whole planet full of people in need of Jesus.
The world of the generous gets larger and larger, Proverbs 11:24a (MSG).
Our generosity, love and concern for others does not mean we have to go without. Matthew 6:33 clearly tells us to be other people focused and God will make sure we have everything we need. We will not miss out on a thing. God will meet our need. He is all-sufficient and more than generous with us.
Jesus changed history because the whole of His earthly life was about others. His whole focus was others. And He said, we will do even greater things, John 14:12.
Our life will continue to get bigger and bigger as we continue to bring others into our focus. Our faith will grow exponentially because we will grasp God’s plan and purpose to reach all people–and we will better understand He empowers us to do it.
We can significantly impact the world but it’s all about our focus.
