31 Days {Day 23} Living Generously

Luke 12:13-21

Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”

¹⁴ Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” 

¹⁵ Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”

¹⁶ And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. ¹⁷ He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’

   ¹⁸ “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. ¹⁹ And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’

  

 ²⁰ “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’

  ²¹ “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”

I believe that the Bible is completely relevant to the way we live today. Jesus' parable here can be applied to our culture in so many ways. I feel that we live with so many things that we plan to save up for the future but don't need.  I read this many times as I was writing this and I see that Jesus is not necessarily saying there is a problem with storing up the grain, but with being greedy with the grain.  We are called to be generous and not just hoard our possessions.

  

life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.

Possessions are not life!  They shouldn't control your life or be the center of your life.  They shouldn't hold so much space in your heart that they squash out the important parts like family, friends and your missions, whatever they may be. 

The last part of the parable is sobering because we never know how long we have on this earth.  Death will happen to all of us and what we have collected and accumulated isn't going to matter, to us anyway.  Those things you might be holding on to for "someday" could be used now by someone who really needs them.  Take hold of that last verse and be generous to others, which is like being rich towards God.  I can't think of a better investment than that.  

-Jennifer