A Bountiful Harvest

A. 2 Cor. 9:6, “But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows
bountifully will also reap bountifully.” If being prone to stinginess is a part of your character, you will
discover that making God the most important thing in your life is very difficult.
1. On the other hand, if generosity is what motivates you, your experience in life will be quite different; you will find the discovery of God to be the most pleasant aspect of your life. Whether you find God or not depends greatly on which of these directions your heart is turned.
a. If you are turned inward and your first concern, in life, is to “get,” then you will probably feel
that the spiritual life is unrewarding. But if you are outwardly oriented and your desire is to
"give" yourself to God and to others, then your perspective about Christianity will be quiet
different. It will be joyfully generous.
(A) When Paul wrote, "he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows
bountifully will also reap bountifully," he was addressing a specific area of obedience in
the Christian life. As Paul encourages the Corinthian Christians to be generous, he is
pointing to a principle that is valid in almost every aspect of life.
(B) This principle is a moral law that is as fixed as any physical law: What we "reap" is always
in proportion to how bountifully we have "sown." This principle is also valid in the spiritual
realm. And this is the one realm where the consequences happen to be much greater.
2. One of our worst, and most typical, shortcomings is our tendency to be too conservative in our "giving" to God. Yet if seeking Him is as important as we believe that it is, then surely this endeavor presents the ultimate opportunity for us to invest ourselves generously, Giving full measure rather than holding back.
(1) And when we truly open our hearts to Him, we need not doubt what God's response to us will be. It is not possible for us to exhaust God’s bounty. In Vs. 8, Paul goes on to say, "God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work."
(2) John Greenleaf Whittier wrote, “The fabric of the Life to be, We weave with colors all our own, And in the field of Destiny, We reap as we have sown.”
(3) Acts 20:32.

Spur - 11/24/02 pm