Why God Loves to Prosper Generous People

Most of us know it’s good to give a portion of our money to God. Yet we don’t always believe that God actually wants to bless us when we give.

The truth is God always loves to bless us, but He especially loves to bless generous people.

Why? Generous people believe God’s Word is true and that He is good.

Being generous is not just about giving our money. It is so much more than this! You might be surprised to find out that God’s number one agenda in our life has nothing to do with our money, how much or how long we read the Bible, or even our church attendance. All of those things are secondary.

What God really wants is for us is to trust Him and to believe in Him.

Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. (Hebrews 11:6)

The interesting thing is that our faith is always connected to risk. That’s why God always rewards those who have faith.

When we give the first of our earnings to God by giving to the local church and to the ministries He’s put on our hearts, in effect we are saying to Him:“I trust you, God. I believe in you. I want your heart and your priorities for my life. I want to use what you’ve given me to further your kingdom.”

In Matthew 25, Jesus teaches about stewardship. He tells the story of a wealthy landowner who calls his three servants together before he leaves on a journey. To one of them he gave five bags of gold, to another he gave two, and to another he gave one bag. The first two men invested their money and earned a profit. The third man who received only one bag decided not to invest it but bury it in the ground instead.

When the master returned, he asked the servants to give an account of what they did with the money he gave them.

To each of the first two servants the master responded,”Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share yourmaster’s happiness!” (Matt. 25:21, 23)

Notice the master didn’t just say, “Well done!” but he also said, “Come and share your master’s happiness.” And then he doubled their reward!

The first two servants took what their master had entrusted to them and risked it all by investing it. But the third servant who buried the master’s gold in the ground selfishly wasted what the master gave to him because he thought his master to be unkind and harsh. This deeply upset the master and he took away the servant’s one bag of gold and gave it to the servant who had ten.

There’s going to come a day when we will all stand before a holy God and give an account for the money, time, leadership and opportunities that we were entrusted with. Were we generous with our resources or selfish and stingy? Did we trust God and believe that He is generous when we are generous?

Here’s what I want you to know: God wants to bless us. He finds pleasure in our happiness. And He wants you and I to be successful with the resources He’s given us. Why? He wants to make us a conduit of His love for other people. Those who are blessed by God are then able to bless others.

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. (2 Corinthians 9:11)

I’m convinced that the wisest thing we can do with our resources is to learn to invest them in God’s kingdom.

You can learn more about this topic by checking out our Small Group Study Resources or by browsing our Weekday Radio Archive where you can listen to all broadcasts that have aired this year.