For much of my life, one of the areas I had the hardest time trusting God with was my finances. Money. I want to be generous but I believed, and sometimes still struggle with, being generous when I feel I just don’t have enough. I thought that if I received more money, I would give more money. But the Apostle Paul shows us the opposite using a simple farming illustration.

In 2 Corinthians 9:6, Paul writes, Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.

That makes perfect sense. If I plant more seeds I will yield more produce. So, given that, does it mean that if I give more, I will receive more?

Paul is not saying that when you give financially to God that God is obligated to give back to you financially. Nope, that’s not what it says. And, I think what Paul intimates in this passage is that thinking that way actually is limiting God! Rather, by “sowing” or giving generously we are showing our trust that God is faithful to His word.

Think about a farmer. When the farmer plants that seed the seed is small but they give it generously, and they have faithful expectations that what is in that seed is going to produce something way greater than what they actually planted. The same is true for us. We don’t hold onto the seed, we don’t hold onto our finances, we give to God generously because when we give, we receive far more than the money (or whatever) that we gave to God.

So what do we do with this, especially in the area of our finances?

I think first we need to remember that God’s blessings are not limited to just money, they go so far beyond - peace, joy, strength, encouragement, love, the list goes on and on. God’s blessings are so vast that we can’t even comprehend them but what we must do is trust. Trust God.

I get this is a tough one. Trusting God is hard enough but trusting God with our money? Yikes. But, I can attest that trusting God with all of it, including the money part is absolutely the way to go. I could fill pages and pages of personal examples of how this principle is true and that God IS FAITHFUL.

Give of your gifts generously, give of yourself generously, give them freely and joyfully back to the Lord and watch, just watch and see what God will do. It will blow your mind! God is faithful in ways you can’t even imagine, because you are not God!

A few verses later, in verse 8, Paul writes:

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.

So today, I encourage you… don’t hold on to what God has given you but rather give generously and joyfully because what God will give back to you is so far greater than what you ever gave to God.

Trust!