Latest / Bible Chat Devotional / May 19 - Generosity Without Pressure

Transcript

May 19 - Generosity Without Pressure · Bible Chat Devotional

• 0:02
  Welcome to Bible Chat, where we have devotional conversations
• 0:06
  rooted in scripture and relevant for.
• 0:07
  Today, May 19th, walking in favor.
• 0:13
  Has anyone ever just seemed to be against you for no clear
• 0:15
  reason? Maybe there's someone at school
• 0:17
  who has an attitude toward you that you didn't earn.
• 0:21
  Maybe there's tension at home that you can't seem to resolve.
• 0:25
  Maybe you've tried to be kind, to do the right thing, to stay
• 0:28
  out of drama, and it still feels like it's not working.
• 0:32
  That kind of experience can be exhausting, and it can make you
• 0:35
  wonder whether being a good person even matters.
• 0:39
  Proverbs chapter 16, verse 7 speaks right into that.
• 0:43
  When a man's ways please the Lord, he makes even his enemies
• 0:46
  to be at peace with him. That is a remarkable promise.
• 0:50
  Not that if you live well, everyone will love you.
• 0:53
  That's not the guarantee. But that when your life is
• 0:57
  genuinely aligned with God, he can do something supernaturally
• 1:00
  that you could never engineer on your own.
• 1:03
  He can soften people. He can shift dynamics.
• 1:07
  He can bring peace into situations that seemed
• 1:09
  impossible. Your job isn't to manage every
• 1:12
  relationship perfectly. Your job is to please God, and
• 1:16
  He handles what you can't. Psalm 56, verse 8 then shows us
• 1:21
  just how closely God is watching.
• 1:23
  You have kept count of my tossings.
• 1:25
  Put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book?
• 1:28
  God counts your sleepless nights.
• 1:31
  He collects your tears. He notices the quiet moments
• 1:34
  when you're struggling and no one else sees.
• 1:37
  There's something incredibly tender about this image, The God
• 1:41
  of the universe keeping record of your pain, not because he's
• 1:44
  tallying up your suffering, but because every moment of your
• 1:48
  life is precious to him. You are not invisible to God,
• 1:53
  not even in your hardest, most private moments.
• 1:56
  And then Second Corinthians Chapter 9, verse 8 brings in an
• 2:00
  overflow that changes how you approach everything.
• 2:03
  For God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that
• 2:07
  having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may
• 2:10
  abound in every good work, all grace, all sufficiency at all
• 2:16
  times. This isn't a stingy God
• 2:18
  parceling out just enough for you to get by.
• 2:21
  This is a God who gives abundantly so that you can in
• 2:24
  turn give abundantly to the people around you who need what
• 2:28
  He's placed in you. Think about the connection
• 2:30
  between those 3 passages. When you walk in God's ways, He
• 2:35
  smooths out conflicts you couldn't resolve yourself.
• 2:38
  When you're hurting, He sees every detail and draws close.
• 2:42
  And when you need strength and resources to bless others, He
• 2:45
  supplies more than enough. That's what it looks like to
• 2:49
  walk in God's favor. Not a life free from difficulty,
• 2:53
  but a life where God is actively present, actively providing, and
• 2:57
  actively working on your behalf. This isn't about performing or
• 3:01
  being perfect. It's about staying close to Him,
• 3:04
  choosing His way in the small decisions, trusting Him with the
• 3:07
  big ones, and then watching Him do what only He can do.
• 3:12
  Your peace, your courage, your ability to show up for people
• 3:15
  around you. It flows from His favor, not
• 3:18
  from your own strength or strategy.
• 3:20
  And that means it's available to you every single day.
• 3:24
  Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank You for
• 3:26
  seeing every part of my life, the visible and the hidden, the
• 3:29
  victories and the tears. Help me to live in a way that
• 3:33
  truly pleases You and to trust You to handle the relationships
• 3:37
  and situations that feel beyond my control.
• 3:41
  I receive Your grace today, not just for myself, but so I can
• 3:44
  pour it out to the people around me.
• 3:46
  Teach me to walk in Your favor, to trust Your provision, and to
• 3:50
  reflect Your peace wherever I go.
• 3:53
  In Jesus name, Amen. What if the battles hitting your
• 3:56
  family are not random and your home can become a place where
• 3:59
  darkness loses every right to stay?
• 4:02
  The Secured Home is a powerful six book prayer series for
• 4:05
  believers who want to guard their households with biblical
• 4:08
  authority, peace, and confidence in Jesus Christ.
• 4:11
  Book 1. Guarded Thresholds fortifies
• 4:14
  every doorway, room, and entry point with prayerful protection.
• 4:19
  Book 2. Cleansed Rooms helps reclaim
• 4:22
  spaces marked by fear, unrest, and spiritual defilement.
• 4:26
  Book 3, Closed Breaches, exposes hidden access points and severs
• 4:31
  every agreement with darkness. Book 4, Broken Assignments,
• 4:36
  confronts oppression, torment, and attacks against your family.
• 4:40
  Book 5, Consecrated Walls, dedicates every space and rhythm
• 4:45
  of the home to God. Book 6, Abiding Peace, shows how
• 4:49
  to maintain spiritual order, rest, and holy presence every
• 4:52
  day. Order now on Amazon or visit
• 4:55
  prayerscripts.org. Now I invite you to spend time
• 4:59
  with God in today's three-year Bible reading plan.
• 5:04
  Proverbs Chapter 16 Verse 7 World English Bible When a man's
• 5:09
  ways please Yahweh, he makes even his enemies to be at peace
• 5:12
  with him. Psalm Chapter 56 World English
• 5:15
  Bible Be merciful to me God for man wants to swallow me up all
• 5:21
  day long. He attacks and oppresses me.
• 5:24
  My enemies want to swallow me up all day long, for they are many
• 5:27
  who fight proudly against me. When I am afraid, I will put my
• 5:31
  trust in you, in God I praise His word.
• 5:34
  In God I put my trust, I will not be afraid.
• 5:37
  What can flesh do to me? All day long they twist my
• 5:40
  words. All their thoughts are against
• 5:43
  me for evil they conspire and lurk.
• 5:45
  Watching my steps, they are eager to take my life.
• 5:49
  Shall they escape by iniquity, in anger, cast down the people's
• 5:52
  God? You count my wanderings.
• 5:55
  You put my tears into your container.
• 5:58
  Aren't they in your book? Then my enemies shall turn back
• 6:00
  in the day that I call. I know this, that God is for me.
• 6:05
  In God I will praise His word. In Yahweh I will praise His
• 6:08
  word. I have put my trust in God.
• 6:10
  I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?
• 6:13
  Your vows are on me. God, I will give thank offerings
• 6:17
  to you, for you have delivered my soul from death, and
• 6:21
  prevented my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in
• 6:24
  the light of the living. Second Corinthians, chapters 8
• 6:28
  to 9 World English Bible. Moreover, brothers, we make
• 6:33
  known to you the grace of God which has been given in the
• 6:36
  assemblies of Macedonia, How in much proof of affliction the
• 6:41
  abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded to the
• 6:44
  riches of their generosity. For according to their power I
• 6:48
  testify, yes, and beyond their power they gave of their own
• 6:52
  accord, begging us with much entreaty to receive this grace
• 6:56
  and the fellowship in the service to the Saints.
• 6:59
  This was not as we had expected. But first they gave their own
• 7:02
  selves to the Lord and to us through the will of God.
• 7:07
  So we urge Titus that as he had made a beginning before, so he
• 7:10
  would also complete in you this grace.
• 7:13
  But as you abound in everything, in faith, utterance, knowledge,
• 7:17
  all earnestness, and in your love to us, see that you also
• 7:21
  abound in this grace. I speak not by way of
• 7:24
  commandment, but is proving through the earnestness of
• 7:27
  others the sincerity also of your love.
• 7:30
  For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though
• 7:33
  he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that you through
• 7:37
  his poverty might become rich. I give a judgement in this for
• 7:42
  this is expedient for you who were the first to start a year
• 7:44
  ago, not only to do but also to be willing, but now complete the
• 7:49
  doing also that as there was the readiness to be willing.
• 7:53
  So there may be the completion also out of your ability.
• 7:57
  For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to
• 8:00
  what you have, not according to what you don't have.
• 8:03
  For this is not that others may be eased, and you distressed,
• 8:07
  but for equality. Your abundance at this present
• 8:10
  time supplies their lack, that their abundance also may become
• 8:14
  a supply for your lack, that there may be equality.
• 8:18
  As it is written. He who gathered much had nothing
• 8:21
  leftover, and he who gathered little had no lack.
• 8:24
  But thanks be to God, who puts the same earnest care for you
• 8:28
  into the heart of Titus. For he indeed accepted our
• 8:31
  exhortation, but being himself very earnest, he went out to you
• 8:35
  of his own accord. We have sent together with him
• 8:39
  the Brother whose praise and the good news is known throughout
• 8:42
  all the assemblies. Not only so, but he was also
• 8:46
  appointed by the assemblies to travel with us in this grace
• 8:50
  which is served by us to the glory of the Lord Himself, and
• 8:53
  to show our readiness. We are avoiding this, that any
• 8:57
  man should blame us concerning this abundance which is
• 9:00
  administered by us, having regard for honorable things, not
• 9:05
  only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men.
• 9:09
  We have sent with them our brother, whom we have many times
• 9:12
  proved earnest in many things, but now much more earnest by
• 9:16
  reason of the great confidence which he has in you.
• 9:19
  As for Titus, he is my partner and fellow worker for you.
• 9:23
  As for our brothers, they are the apostles of the assemblies.
• 9:26
  The glory of Christ therefore show the proof of your love to
• 9:30
  them before the assemblies, and of our boasting on your behalf.
• 9:35
  It is indeed unnecessary for me to write to you concerning the
• 9:38
  service to the Saints, for I know your readiness, of which I
• 9:42
  boast on your behalf to those of Macedonia, that Ichaya has been
• 9:46
  prepared for the past year. Your zeal has stirred up very
• 9:50
  many of them. But I have sent the brothers
• 9:53
  that are boasting on your behalf.
• 9:55
  May not be in vain in this respect, that, just as I said,
• 9:59
  you may be prepared lest by any means, if anyone from Macedonia
• 10:04
  comes there with me and finds you unprepared, we, to say
• 10:07
  nothing of you, would be disappointed in this confident
• 10:10
  boasting. I thought it necessary,
• 10:13
  therefore, to entreat the brothers that they would go
• 10:16
  before to you and arrange ahead of time the generous gift that
• 10:20
  you promised before that the same might be ready as a matter
• 10:24
  of generosity and not of greediness.
• 10:27
  Remember this. He who sows sparingly will also
• 10:30
  reap sparingly. He who sows bountifully will
• 10:33
  also reap bountifully. Let each man give according as
• 10:37
  he has determined in his heart, not grudgingly or under
• 10:40
  compulsion. For God loves a cheerful giver,
• 10:44
  and God is able to make all grace abound to you, that you
• 10:47
  always having all sufficiency in everything, may abound to every
• 10:51
  good work as it is written. He has scattered abroad, He has
• 10:56
  given to the poor. His righteousness remains
• 10:59
  forever. Now may he who supplies seed to
• 11:02
  the sower and bread for food supply and multiply your seed
• 11:06
  for sowing, and increase the fruits of your righteousness,
• 11:10
  You being enriched in everything to all generosity, which
• 11:13
  produces Thanksgiving to God through us.
• 11:16
  For this service of giving that you perform not only makes up
• 11:20
  for lack among the Saints, but abounds also through much giving
• 11:23
  of thanks to God, seeing that through the proof given by this
• 11:27
  service they glorify God For the obedience of your confession to
• 11:31
  the good news of Christ, and for the generosity of your
• 11:34
  contribution to them and to all, while they themselves also with
• 11:39
  supplication on your behalf, yearn for you by reason of the
• 11:42
  exceeding grace of God in you. Now thanks be to God for His
• 11:47
  unspeakable gift. Thanks for joining us on Bible
• 11:51
  Chat, where Scripture meets everyday life.
• 11:55
  If today's devotional encouraged you, share it with a friend and
• 11:58
  be sure to follow the podcast so you won't miss the next
• 12:01
  conversation. Until next time, stay rooted in
• 12:04
  truth, anchored in hope and walking.
• 12:06
  Daily with Jesus.