Excelling in Every Good Work

 God wants to use us, as Christians, to be conduits of His grace to meet the needs of other people. He will supply what we need, but we have to be willing to be generous in giving our time, talents, and resources. He will not force us, because He wants us to be cheerful givers in all we do. However, if we are stingy, we will not experience the grace of God to bless us in these good works. Therefore, we need to learn that when we give a little, we will receive a little, and if we give a lot, we will receive a lot. Paul made this very clear to the Christians in Corinth, as they prepared to give a big love offering to the believers in Israel. (II Corinthians 9:8). He wanted us all to know that God is able to make every grace overflow to us, so that in every way, always having all we need, we will excel in every good work.  Let's make sure we fully understand what this verse is saying to us.

In some Bible translations it seems that this verse might be saying that God will meet all of our needs all of the time. That is not what it means. We must look at the context of the verse. Paul is exhorting them to make a sacrificial gift to help their brothers and sisters in Christ. Each one of the believers were to decide what to give in their hearts and then give it cheerfully. It might seem that they would lack something they needed, but that was not the case, because God is able to make every grace overflow to us, so that in everything we have what we need to excel in His good works and still have what we need, too. Therefore, this is a promise of what God will do when we give ourselves to do His will according to how He leads us. If we all will do this, God will bless so many people, and He will bless us at the same time.

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Tomorrow, I intend to read II Corinthians 10-12.