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Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. (2 Corinthians 9:6-8)

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Generosity begins and ends with God\u2019s blessing.\xa0 It isn\u2019t about a duty to give.\xa0 It isn\u2019t about how much we have or don\u2019t have.\xa0 It is about who God is and how much he has\u2014and God has an abundance.\xa0

As Christian\u2019s we are called into a way of living that\u2019s oriented around God\u2019s coming Kingdom: the future that we long and hope for.\xa0 A place where there is no longer any death, or sickness, or layoffs, or evictions, or violence, or poverty, or homelessness.\xa0 The kingdom is a place of life and of abundance.\xa0 Not a place of death or scarcity.\xa0

And already now, this kingdom breaks into our world.\xa0 We are called to seek it first.\xa0 We are called to pray for this kingdom to come and God\u2019s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.\xa0 But we are also called to live as citizens of this kingdom here and now: and that includes living generously, as if all the world and so much more were already ours in Christ Jesus our Lord, because, of course, that\u2019s true.\xa0

God\u2019s abundant kingdom is filled with life and provision plentiful enough.\xa0 As citizens of that kingdom then, we may take on that mindset of abundance and sow generously: investing our time, our lives, our money, our skill in not just the church, but also in our neighbours.\xa0

And the promise from 2 Corinthians 9 is that sowing generously, far from emptying our own pantry of provision, will actually fill it up with a generous abundance.\xa0 Why?\xa0 Because the God to whom it all belongs anyway is able to bless us with abundance.\xa0 He is able to provide enough for our lives and days when we trust ourselves and all the stuff we have, to him.\xa0 Because again, it\u2019s his anyways, not ours: we only hold this stuff in trust, and for a time.\xa0

This is an open-handed kind of living: trusting that as we open our hands, let go of our stuff and give it away, God can and does fill our hands back up again.\xa0

And even if not: a life lived in trust and reliance in him is, sometimes paradoxically, a life of \u201cenough\u201d all the same, because it is a life lived with God and under his blessing, set free from the tyrannical pursuit of provision and of stuff.\xa0 It is in this place of freedom with God that Christians throughout the ages have found the secret of joy.\xa0 The secret is simply this: when we have God, we have enough.\xa0 This is what it means to a be a citizen, living generously and cheerfully in his kingdom.

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