Relieving suffering shows
the world a faithful, compassionate, merciful and giving God. What does it mean to live radically generous? Most of
us know what it means to be generous—the
dictionary defines it as “liberal in giving, open-handed and marked by
abundance.” Radical is “very different from the usual, extreme.” So to be radically generous believers
means we aggressively and purposefully look for ways to reach out to others and
help meet their needs.Our God is a generous God - radically generous. He continues to model it today as He gives to
us in ways we can’t even imagine. Time and again, He has helped me in extremely
generous ways. He has brought healing and restoration to my mind, emotions and
body, and He continues to do life-changing things in me as I keep growing and
maturing in my relationship with Him. In our world today, you don’t have to look very hard
to find hurting or needy people. Millions of men and women around the world are
enslaved. Millions of children and their families are hungry, living in extreme
poverty. The Bible is filled with more than 2,000 Scriptures instructing us on
how to treat, serve and care for the hungry, the homeless, the poor, the needy,
the widows, the orphans, the oppressed and the lost in our midst and to the
ends of the earth.
God has given each of us resources we can use to show love through our actions,
whether those resources are time, talent, material possessions or finances. How we treat others reveals how we love them. I continue to see that
the church’s greatest need today is to really learn how to love - “I give you a new commandment: that you should love one another. Just as I have loved you, so you too should
love one another. By this shall all [men] know that you are My disciples”. Love
gives and is willing to make sacrifices. Love lays down its life for others. It
has to be a daily decision we make to help someone else have a better quality
of life. I believe this is more than living radically generous. Say the Radical yes to
generosity. It can be the smallest of things that make a Radical difference in
someone’s day.
