Radical generosity

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.