Day 5 (Part 2)

God- God will bless those who give generously, not necessarily with money, objects, or anything in this world, but with righteousness. God also blesses us so that we can bless others, nothing that we have was given to us without reason. "God loves a cheerful give", that is straight out of the bible and 100% true. God doesn't want anyone to give out of obligation, God doesn't want anyone to give when they would rather not be giving. God wants you to give because thats what you want to do. Verse 15 is a reminder of God's incredible gift, the gift that we were given because of his son!

Us-  In order to gain from God we need to be able to willingly give up the things of this world. We should all give whatever we are willing to give. This does not in any way mean that we shouldn't give if we don't want to or that we should not give in large amounts. It only means that all of our giving should be done both willingly and cheerfully. And again "God loves a cheerful give". In verse 9 something is mentioned that is constantly showing up in the bible, giving to the poor. Few actions are mentioned more than giving to the poor in the bible, so it is obvious that giving is really something God wants us to do as believers. Paul finishes the chapter by reminding us of several things. The first is that God is the one that has given us everything that we have, we should be thankful for that and eager to give back a small portion of what God has given us. He also reminds us that God will bless us when we give and again not always with things of this world. And last but especially not least he reminds us that giving to the church is also a great blessing to all those that the church serves and spreads the gospel too.

Like- "Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly," If we want more God in our lives we have to give up more of ourselves.

Summery- Paul starts off by continuing to talk about the church in Macedonia and how he has been telling them about what the church in Corinth said they would do and how they would give. He reminds them of what they said and also that they're on their way to pick up their offering. His goal in telling them all this was that they would prepare their hearts for the giving that was soon to come.

Application- We must give but not only monetarily, if we wish to fill ourselves with with God we must first empty ourselves of our own desires and of the things of this world.