Jesus and Generousity.

“About this time, Abimelech came with Phicol, his army commander, to visit Abraham. ‘God is obviously with you, helping you in everything you do,’ Abimelech said. ‘Swear to me in God’s name that you will never deceive me, my children, or any of my descendants. I have been loyal to you, so now swear now that you will be loyal to me and to this country where you are living as a foreigner.’

Abraham replied, ‘Yes, I swear to it!’” [Gen. 21:22-24 (NLT)]

Now think about everything that Abimelech was asking of Abraham. It was certainly no small favor! It was an ETERNAL VOW OF LOYALTY, to both him and his descendants. What is an eternal promise? It is a promise that you keep FOREVER and NO MATTER WHAT. What is more amazing? Abraham hears this and says, “Yes!” without hesitation! I don’t know about you but giving ANYONE an eternal vow is pretty generous to me!

Now just to follow that example takes a lot doesn’t it? But I challenge you to take it a step further than that. I know said this before, and I will say it until my mouth can no longer form the syllables (then I’ll just mumble it): IN ORDER TO FOLLOW JESUS, WE NEED TO BE LIKE JESUS!!! We need to be pure like Jesus was. We need to love like Jesus did. And we need to be GENEROUS, as he was generous.

As far as giving the way Jesus does, it is impossible. No matter who we are, we cannot give anyone salvation, I don’t care if you are the pope. It is impossible. A popular piece of scripture says, “ask and you shall receive”. Jesus can give us anything; we can only give so much. It is a lot easier to be like Abraham.

“Why are you asking me to do the impossible?”

I’m not; I did not challenge you to be Jesus, just to be like him. So why did I bring up that Abraham is easier? Pay attention.

“If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that.” [Mat. 5:47 (NLT)]

Notice hoe Abimelech told Abraham, “I have always been loyal to you”. So they were friends. Christians, we NEED to take it a step further than this. Jesus KNOWS that you and I have not always been loyal to him, but does he still love us? More than we know. No matter who you are or what you’ve done, HIS LOVE IS AT YOUR DISPOSAL! ASK AND YOU SHALL RECEIVE! His love for you isn’t based on anything you do; it’s just there.

This is how you must be; I know it’s hard. But it’s nothing compared to the cross. LIVE LIKE JESUS! GIVE LIKE JESUS!