2 Corinthians 9
Sunday, June 26, 2022
Have you ever planted a tomato seed? What was going through your head when you buried it in the dirt? Were you wondering how this small speck of matter could ever turn into an ingredient for the perfect BLT?
What was your attitude when planting this seed? Where you already drooling over the image you had in your head of that BLT? Were you skeptical it would even grow? Or maybe it wasn’t your idea to plant it and you held a grudge that the task fell to you.
While Paul wasn’t writing to the Corinthians about tomatoes or BLTs in this chapter, he did parallel the similarity between tithing and sowing seeds. He wanted the Corinthians to give with a cheerful heart and not out of compulsion or with a heart that was holding a grudge because of giving.
Whether time or financially I feel like this can be a difficulty. There is always something else we could be doing with our time or something else we could be buying with our money. But the importance of giving our time or finances to the LORD is the attitude that we have when doing so.
If we plant that tomato seed with a heart of anger, we may not appreciate the process of watching God grow the seed we planted into a bountiful and beautiful tomato plant. Sure, we can plant it with anger and still enjoy the outcome of the BLT and maybe even that outcome is what will change our perspective next planting season. But the joy of watching God take what has been sown and multiply it into something that we could never even have imagined may be missed with a heart that is misplaced.
When planting a seed, whether time or money, with a cheerful heart we not only receive the opportunity to minister to others, we also are able to enjoy the process of the LORD multiplying it. In the end, when we harbor a cheerful heart for the LORD, the BLT will taste a whole lot better.
-Hannah Deane
Application Questions
- What difference does the attitude make in either cheerful generosity or grudgingly given?
- Which attitude do you most often have when giving of your time? Or your finances? If there is a specific area in which you struggle to give cheerfully, how can you work towards improving that attitude?
- What do you gain when you give, especially with a good attitude, according to 2 Corinthians verses 6-15?
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