5. Become a Generous Person

“You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving.” — Amy Carmichael

BECOME A GENEROUS PERSON

It’s actually possible to live life without worrying all the time about whether or not your finances are in order—God wants that for you. However, getting to that place takes some work. The first step is to tithe consistently. God invites us to give our first 10 percent back to him, to not only provide for our local church but to remind us that the first 10 percent never belonged to us. The second step is to manage our finances responsibly. Once we give our first 10 percent to our church, our job is to manage the other 90 percent well. We can do that by setting goals, establishing a budget that matches those goals, and then developing healthy habits to help us achieve those goals.

Those first two steps are an important foundation, but there is one final thing we need to do. If we want to experience the worry-free life God has for us, we have to step into God’s call to live generously.

If we have a death grip on our money, we will experience more worry, not less. It’s impossible to experience true, long-lasting peace of mind unless we learn to let go. Generosity is the perfect cure, which is why it is the third part of God’s prescription for handling money.

God knows how quickly the human heart can fall in love with money, so all throughout Scripture, He calls us to not only tithe and be good stewards, He also calls us to be generous. Together, these three principles help us manage our finances in a way that honors God and positions us to live without worry.

In Part Three, I’m going to show you how to become a generous person by building a generous spirit in your heart and mind. For many people, this is the missing link in their approach to finances.

Generous can simply be defined as “willing to give and share.”²⁶ Spirit (according to Merriam-Webster) is “the activating or essential principle influencing a person.”²⁷

If you put those two words together then, you could say that a generous spirit is when one of our deepest motivators in life is a willingness to give and share. Having a generous spirit isn’t just about giving away large sums of money–that’s part of it. But being generous is really more about the spirit we carry within us, the attitude of our hearts and minds. It’s letting go of the grip we have on our finances and choosing to live openhanded rather than tightfisted. The fastest way to worry about your finances is to hold onto them too tightly. A generous spirit allows us to still work hard but then let go and trust God to provide. When we do that, we will start to experience a peace that transcends understanding (Philippians 4:7).

So far in this book, I’ve given you a lot of really practical steps to take—tithe, set goals, build a budget, and develop healthy habits. But this final step isn’t quite as tangible. I could end this book by telling you to give a certain percentage point away to someone in need and call it a day. However, that misses the point of generosity.

Generosity is less about what we do and more about who we are. It’s great to do something generous for someone, but I want to help you become a generous person. Having a generous spirit goes deeper than our

actions. Proverbs 23:6–7 show us that we can actually have generous efforts without having a generous heart or spirit: “Do not eat the food of a begrudging host, do not crave his delicacies; for he is the kind of person who is always thinking about the cost. ‘Eat and drink,’ he says to you, but his heart is not with you” (NIV).

The goal of this final section is not to twist your arm into giving more money away; the goal is to learn how to develop a heartfelt spirit of generosity in your life. True generosity is determined by the condition of the heart. Generous actions that don’t flow from a generous heart aren’t pleasing to God or the people we direct them toward.

Why Should We Cultivate a Generous Spirit?

Does generosity come naturally to you? For some people, it does, but most people have to work at it. That’s why Step 3 is to build a generous spirit— generosity is something we have to cultivate. Generosity is like a muscle; the more we work it, the stronger it gets. That may sound like a lot of work, but trust me, you’ll be glad you put in the time and effort. Here are three reasons why we should be cultivating a generous spirit: the Bible tells us to, generosity is the essence of Godliness, and a generous spirit expands our world.

The Bible Tells Us To A generous spirit is important to financial freedom, but more importantly, it’s a mark of a healthy Christian who’s living according to God’s Word.

The first reason we should become generous people is simple: The Bible tells us to. First Timothy 6:18 says, “Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.” This theme is all throughout Scripture. In the Old Testament, God commands His people to be generous to those who are less fortunate (Deuteronomy 15). The Psalms and Proverbs are both packed full with the benefits of living generously and giving to the poor (Psalm 37:26; 112:5; 19:7; Proverbs 11:24–26; 19:17; 22:9). In the New Testament, Paul constantly encourages believers to be generous, reminding them not just to give, but to give cheerfully (2 Corinthians 8:10–15; 9:6–15; 1 Timothy 6:17–19; Philippians 4:15–20). Generosity is, and always has been, a part of God’s plan for His people.

Psalm 37:21 tells us, “The wicked borrow and do not repay, but the righteous give generously” (emphasis mine). Righteousness and generosity go hand in hand; they are inseparable. “The righteous” are those who choose God’s way, so if our goal is to live God’s way,

generosity isn’t a recommendation or an option—it’s an expectation. It’s how God expects all believers to live.

In the Bible, the word believe is used 408 times, pray is used 438 times, and love is used 763 times. Those statistics probably don’t surprise you. After all, believing, praying, and loving are essential pieces of God’s plan for the world. What’s interesting is the word give is used 1,729 times!

Yes, you read that correctly—1,729 times. Give is used more than believe, pray, and love combined, and it’s used more than twice as many times as love.²⁸ It’s safe to say giving is important to God, which means it should be important to us, too.

Generosity Is the Essence of Godliness One of the most famous bible verses of all time is John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” It’s an amazing verse about just how much God loves us. What did God do in response to His love for us? He gave. And not just anything. He gave what was most precious to him. As believers, we are created in God’s image and called to be like Christ. Jesus gave His very life for us;

He didn’t hold anything back. If we are going to be like Him, we need to be willing to give, even things that are precious to us.

We can’t be stingy and Christlike at the same time. Those two things can’t coexist. As Christians, we should be the most giving people on the planet because God has been so gracious and generous toward us.

Notice God didn’t just do something generous for us once; He continues to give freely. God’s generosity toward us wasn’t a one-time thing. He didn’t just do something generous; He is generous. There is nothing stingy about God. His generosity continues to flow toward us in every way. “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32).

When we are generous, we are simply following God’s example. Generosity is the essence of godliness. Psalm 84:11 tells us, “The LORD will withhold no good thing from those who do what is right” (NLT). Since God is generous and openhanded, building a generous spirit is one of the most significant ways we can be like Him.

A Generous Spirit Expands our World Imagine a farmer who has a pile of seeds in front of him as he sits down at his kitchen table to plan out his year. He can do two things with his seeds: plant them or consume them. Now, in this hypothetical story, this farmer is very hungry, so he’s very tempted to get the immediate gratification of eating them now. We all understand that feeling. Hunger makes us do crazy things. But he’s also smart. He understands that a seed you sow always produces more than if you keep it for yourself. If he chooses to use it for food, he forfeits any long-term benefits. Once that meal is done, he’s reached the end of his return from that seed. But if he chooses to plant it, he’ll get far more in return than what he started with. The wise farmer thinks about all of his kids and the community that is counting on him to multiply his food and decides to plant the seeds rather than consume them.

Generosity is like planting seeds instead of consuming them. What we give goes on to produce far more than we could ever create if we choose to keep it for ourselves—a generous spirit expands our world.

When we are generous, it actually brings a multitude of personal benefits into our lives. Whenever we play a part in expanding the world, we walk away

with a sense of purpose. I’m not saying that is the primary reason we should be generous; generosity is something we commit to simply because it is in the Word of God. We obey God’s principles, whether they benefit our lives or not. But the really good news is that good things come into our lives when we live with a generous spirit.

Studies show that the one who benefits the most from generosity is the person who is being generous.²⁹ This is exactly what God’s Word tells us, too. Proverbs 11:17 says, “The merciful, kind, and generous man benefits himself [for his deeds return to bless him], but he who is cruel and callous [to the wants of others] brings on himself retribution” (AMPC). Whenever we have compassion and act generously on someone else’s behalf, we’re sowing good seeds that cause good things to grow in our lives. We determine what flows back to us by what flows out from us.

Generosity is like a catalyst. It initiates change and brings momentum into our lives. It stirs up the work of the Holy Spirit and causes God to move on our behalf. Proverbs 11:24 says, “The world of the generous gets larger and larger; the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller” (MSG).

I’ve seen that verse play out in my life in both tangible and intangible ways. Whenever I live with a generous spirit, it brings expansion and favor into my life. Many of the opportunities and doors God opened for Leslie and me were birthed out of moments of generosity. Living with a generous spirit has enriched our lives and expanded our world.

We often describe our life as our “circumstances.” If you look at the word circumstance, it’s a combination of two words: circum, which means “circle or round,” and stance, which means “to stand.” So we can picture our world, or our circumstances, as a circle we are standing in. If we are hoping and believing for big things—meaning we have some goals and dreams for progress and expansion in our lives—we have to realize that expansion in our world comes when we live with a generous spirit. As generosity flows from our lives, more freedom, more favor, more blessings, and more opportunities flow back into our lives. Our circle gets bigger because this God principle causes the boundaries of our lives to expand.

Conversely, the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller. If you’re feeling frustrated and confined by your circumstances, it could be that you’ve been tightfisted and stingy instead of openhanded and generous.

Most people who are tightfisted live in a place of fear. What they don’t realize is that fear actually causes their world to close in on them. Faith and fear are opposites. Fear causes us to cling tightly to what we have. Faith enables us to willingly share what we have, knowing God will honor our generosity.

I know it isn’t easy, but if you can make the shift from fear to faith, your generosity will expand your world. If you can begin to trust God with your finances by opening your hands, it will improve people’s lives all over the globe, starting with your own!

Key Ingredients of a Generous Spirit

When bakers get ready to bake a new dessert, the first thing they do is study the recipe and make sure they have all the ingredients. It doesn’t matter how talented the baker is. If he or she does not have all the correct ingredients, the dessert is not going to turn out how it is supposed to.

The same is true for living a generous life. God’s Word gives us a recipe for it, with three key ingredients: faith, vision, and joy.

Let’s go through them one at a time and make sure we have all three.

Faith Philemon 1:6 says, “And I am praying that you will put into action the generosity that comes from your faith as you understand and experience all the good things we have in Christ” (NLT). There is so much to that verse, but let’s focus on the first part: “generosity that comes from your faith” (emphasis mine). Faith is the first ingredient. It’s a prerequisite for a generous spirit. Opening our hands and being generous can be a scary leap, but faith is the thing that gives us the courage to jump. True faith moves us to action. In fact, without action, faith is not really faith at all (James 2:17).

Don’t fall into the trap of thinking you need to have everything figured out before you can take a step of faith. After all, if you had everything figured out, you wouldn’t need faith. That’s the whole point—faith doesn’t mean we have everything figured out, or we don’t have any concerns. It means we choose to follow God’s Word over our feelings. First Timothy 6:17 says, “Teach those who are rich in this world not to be proud and not to trust in their money, which is so unreliable. Their trust should be in God, who richly gives us all we need for our enjoyment” (NLT). When we truly believe God is our provider and that His promises and principles will hold true in our lives, we have the confidence to live our lives with a spirit of generosity and freedom.

Everything comes back to where we place our faith. Is it anchored in ourselves, our job, our circumstances, or is it firmly rooted in God? To live a generous life, we have to make sure we’ve anchored our faith in God and the principles we find in His Word.

Vision The second ingredient for a generous spirit is vision. If you want to get unstuck, you have to know where you want to go. Whether you realize it or not, you already have a vision for the future of your finances. If you haven’t taken the time to think about yours, there is a good chance it is something along the lines of: Have enough money to get by.

That’s not the vision God wants for you, and it’s not the goal of this book. The vision I want you to have for yourself is worry-free finances. That’s a much better and bigger goal.

Vision is a picture of a preferable future—it sees past where we are now to focus on where we want to go. It helps us look at opportunities, make decisions, avoid temptations, and manage our resources well. We need a picture for our lives that is in line with what God created us for, including our finances. If we want to be able to bless others, it helps if we first get ourselves to a place

of strength. We’ve already established the importance of living a generous life, but it won’t happen on its own. We have to get a vision for it and be intentional.

Vision that’s aligned with God’s purpose keeps our lives from becoming just about us. It opens our eyes to the incredible possibilities that can result from our generosity and reminds us that our lives aren’t limited to pursuing our own desires and interests.

Godly vision causes us to live with an eternal perspective and place more value on things that will matter for eternity rather than things that only matter here on earth. Only then can we really experience God’s best for our lives and experience true significance. In his book Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis put it this way: “If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next.”³⁰

Do you have a vision for how generous you want to be? Take some time to dream with God about how much He can accomplish through you, and then return to that vision often. If we want our lives to make a lasting impact, we must live with vision and the eternal perspective that kingdom work is an investment that lasts forever.