Week 16 - April 14-20, 2024: Great Expectations?

Week 16 – April 14-20, 2024

This week’s daily readings:

April 14-20, 2024

This week’s devotional:

Great Expectations?

by Sue Hersey

Scripture:

A generous person will prosper;

   whoever refreshes others will be refreshed.

— Proverbs 11:25 (NIV) 

Reflection:

It’s been a long, long time since my early years in grade school when I learned “reading and writing and ‘rithmetic,” but I still recall parts of it vividly. I remember with some amusement those arithmetic lessons called word problems. Those lessons were a way to strengthen a student’s math skills by visualizing a story that illustrated the problem. There were some perplexing word problems concerning trains running at different speeds in opposite directions… I still don’t know how those problems were supposed to be worked out and I trust I don’t need to know now! Then there were much simpler ones, such as this: “Suzie had 10 apples. If she gave 1 apple to the teacher, and 1 to Johnny, and 2 each to her 3 best friends, how many apples would Suzie have left?” Math was never my strongest subject, but I believe the answer here would be 2. That’s the correct answer for the classroom, anyway, and if anyone came to a different conclusion, they were marked wrong. 

However, according to the Proverb above (and backed up elsewhere in the Bible), mathematics can work a little differently in the Kingdom of God. Somehow, in God’s economy, Suzie would be blessed for her generosity and could very well wind up with more apples than she started out with! How that works I really can’t explain except to say that anything is possible with God. He’s always been generous with his children, starting with creation, and certainly including the incredible gift of his one and only Son for the sake of a sinful world – the ultimate act of generosity. God simply cannot be outgiven! 

With God as our example for generosity, we are encouraged throughout the Bible to share what we’ve been given with a cheerful heart. After all, we are blessed by God so that we, in turn, can be a blessing to others. This not only includes sharing our material possessions, but giving of our time and talents, friendship, love, and hospitality. Don’t forget to share the most important blessing a Christian has: knowing Jesus and, through him, having forgiveness and eternal life. 

From this Proverb, we learn the upshot of being a generous person is the promise of prosperity. When we refresh others, we too will be refreshed. However, when acting out of love, we should not keep an account of who does what for whom (my paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 13). For instance, I can be fairly sure that if I stop whatever I’m doing to bring my husband a cup of coffee in the morning, he will most likely refresh me in some way later on. But the promise of repayment is not my motive for being kind. We should do our acts of kindness out of love and gratitude and obedience to God. If you’re a child of God, you already have your reward!

Prayer: 

O God, my Father, I thank you for the generous giver that you are and the example that it sets for all your children. I know that I’ve been blessed with all good things so that I can share them with those in need, including the incredible gift of my salvation. Give me a heart that is happy to refresh others, expecting nothing in return, yet knowing you have promised good to me. I don’t need to understand the math; I only need to believe you are God and you are good! Amen