Generosity is a trait which enriches others. It is the opposite of being selfish, stingy, or unconcerned. Jesus is the supreme example of generosity. Paul wrote, “You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.” (2 Cor 8:9) He emptied Himself of position, privilege, and possessions to enrich mankind. Each of us has something we can and should share with others. The Apostle John emphasized that responsibility when he wrote “whoever has the world’s goods, and beholds his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? (1 John 3:17).
Generosity is the quality of being kind and generous or the quality or fact of being plentiful or large. Jesus is the most generous person I know and I know he wants us to be to but it’s really difficult because we’re always greedy or selfish or what not. We might just wanna get rid of all that and learn to be selfish. For example, some of you guys know my parents and that they always help around the school (it’s sometimes embarrassing that they know some of you or vice versa) but they choose to do that out of generosity to help this school out not because they’re forced to do it with cold as stone hearts and get glory for helping out but because they love to help others and spread God’s love around to others. Another example of my parents is that my dad served for the air-force for years and every time I ask why he did it is because he wanted to do it because God called him to and he said that we as America needed help fighting the enemy (whoever it was back then). A third example is that my parents generosity has maybe rubbed off onto me for 18 years! There’s some days I’m as generous as my parents then there’s other days that we (even my parents aren’t sometimes because either kids bicker at them or even me because we’re all humans) but that doesn’t stop us because we all have some of those days. I generously give up my weekends to help my church out with the kids (and I don’t like little children that much so you can see how it is sometimes hard for me to be generous for that part) or do service projects for school or something out of school even though I wanna do teenage fun like hang out with my friends, go bowling, go watch some of the games at school, play my guitar or piano, go to the mall or go to ballroom dance classes with my mom. It’s sometimes a hard balance but I always find a balance that works for God, my parents, friends, school and me with God’s help.
To me, Generosity is the same as Helping others which Jesus wants us to do. Jesus helped out many people by forgiving them or healing their sickness or teaching His disciples. This is also one of the hardest yet most important character traits like I kinda said before that we need in our walk with Christ.
Reblogged this on Realifer Blog.
Geneosity doesn’t have to just relate to money. Generosity relates to giving your talents to the world with humility because God made us creatively. He made us to share His love with the world and we should do so abundantly. We can’t spect people to pay or reward us for everything sometimes we just need to give our talents, time, and ability without strings.
Yes I agree with you Hawley. Money doesn’t just relate to Generosity
There are so many ways that one can be generous, but if we do it in front only for the purpose of everyone seeing just how awesome we are, then yes you are being generous in giving stuff away, but going about it the wrong way. i like to remember the story of the woman who gave two pennies and Jesus praised her donation while the others were loudly “pouring” in their donation and Jesus said they werent as generous as the poor woman. Its not about who gives the most, but about who gives what little they have with the right attitude and heart.
I think that generosity is a great way to share Jesus’s love with others. People need to be less selfish and think more of others. Often people are not generous to people they don’t like but that is not what god wants, he wants us to be generous to everybody.
I think generosity, like humility, is a trait that comes when we realize just how generous and gracious God has been to us and that nothing we have is our own. when we have the mindset that everything we have is God’s, we won’t mind helping out that homeless guy on the corner, volunteering time at that food bank, paying for that friend who doesn’t have money, etc.
Generosity goes beyond just giving money out of our pocket, we should strive to help others by giving out of our own will, not just because we feel guilty for not giving to someone or because we feel obligated to give, Christ calls us to be like him and and Christ never gave the least he could he always gave more than we can fathom.
Mary gave her very best to Jesus. She wasn’t worrying about what anyone else thought or that it would stink up the room. The only thing she was looking at was Jesus. She understood the glory of Him and used her most precious perfume on his feet. We need to give with our eyes on Jesus and then what others think and what were giving will seem worthless is comparison.
Generosity entales the sharing of what you may have, be that knowledge, money, or maybe just a bit of food, for the good of the other without thought of specific gain for yourself. To me generosity is an ultimate form of kindess one could show to another.
I think we confine generosity to the material things that we can give another person, however we are called to give what we HAVE. That includes our time, advice, services, belongings, money, and material things. We are not supposed to judge how worthy someone is of our generosity or how much they deserve but to give with an open heart out of love. We give and show generosity to show Christ to other people, to be living like Christ.
I feel like generosity is only really thought of as giving money. You can be generous with your time, or money or other things we do to help people. When you are generous you are doing something selfless. You also glorify God and show Him to people through how you act and your generosity. I think generosity is a very important for a deciple of Christ to have.
With generoisty I think about how generous Christ was with sharing his love and salvation with us. He could have just given it to a few people or the really good people but, he gave every ounce of love and forgiveness possible to everyone in the entire universe. I think that is both gracious and generous.
When the word “generosity” is said most people automatically think of being giving of money. However, being generous is much much more than only money. You can be generous with money, time, joy, emotions, belongings…pretty much anything. A perfect example of this would be the boy who gave up his fish and bread for Jesus to feed the 5,000. Im positive he had wished he had that lunch for himself to eat, but he put his selfishness aside when he saw a need to be met, and he gave it up to help someone out. His small act of generosity had an effect on thousands.
I agree that generosity can be more than just money. Another example was the father in the prodigal son story he was extreemly generous to his son with forgiveness even though the son wronged him. On the other hand his brother was not generous with forgiveness he was angry at his dad for forgiving his brother.
Generosity is like sharing some of your stuff with others without expecting anything from them. It is like lending some money to a friend when they need help, or giving up some of your meal to a person who is hungry. You can also be generous and share the gospel with people who have never heard it. You do it out of generosity without being asked.
When it comes to generosity I can sometimes be short sighted. Such as giving $10 to student council so they can reach their goal and not the fact that God can do so much with so little. Who knows how many lives that $10 could change. Or how my service project hours could benefit more than just my NHS application. The little boy in John 6 gave Jesus his lunch willingly not knowing the impact it would make on so many others and bring glory to the name of God.
Generosity is a gift that I must say I do not have. When it comes to sharing food or money, I am Scrooge. However, I am usually fine with sharing my time helping others. I’m not sure if that counts as generosity, but that’s something I share.
I think generosity is a cool gift, I just am not good at it. It’s easy to stay away from generosity by being selfish. Although, I don’t understand how people give out of their necessity. I need food to survive. Therefore, you don’t get my food. End of story.
Being generous can be done in so many ways. Like Hawley said that generosity isn’t just about money, that’s a very important detail that many people might not realize. It’s not all about money but its about giving and sharing what you can and your traits God have given to you with others. And we shouldn’t give or share just with the thoughts of wanting others to see because that’s being generous just in the wrong way.
I think that generosity goes really well with humility. Humility is all about completely putting yourself aside and being 100% selfless. Sometimes generosity can be “generous” on the outside but truly, you want people to see that and think that you are generous. True generosity has no selfish motives and glorifies God. It comes out of the goodness of your heart and not expecting or even wanting anything in return. One of my favorite Bible verses says that if we do things without love, they are worthless. Be generous out of love and keep your motives in check.
I instantly think of giving money away when I hear “generosity,” probably because alot of our problems deal with money, maybe, or not. I think being generous is a great trait for all Christians because we’re thinking more of people around us rather than ourselves. So instead of giving money to fix problems, why don’t we personally and emotionally help each other out.
I feel generosity shows who truly is a believer in Christ. Generous people seem to realize the material items aren’t that important. Generosity shows Jesus in a straight forward way. Jesus has always taught us to be generous with the poor and in general. We should all try to be generous as much as possible.
Christians should be generous so they can show a good example of being a Christian. Being generous also helps non Christians to listen to you with an open mind.
I see generosity as more of an attitude than an action. The action of being generous stems from the attitude, but the action doesn’t define the extent of how generous one is. Like in Luke with the boy who gave his fish and bread to Jesus. What he had was so little that people might not think his sacrifice significant, though it was all he had, but Jesus worked a miracle through it. If we are just willing to be generous and put other’s needs before our own, God will bless whatever we give up. Another big part of generosity is not becoming attatched to material items. It is a lot harder to let go of something if you are emotionally invested in it. Everything is already God’s, and just on loan to us, so letting go of stuff we’ve ultimately done nothing to deserve should be simply and painless.
I see generosity as, seeing people the way Jesus does. In fact it is one of my new years resolutions. Anyway showing compassion and loving other even at hard times and times when you don’t feel like your in the mood.
Yes generosity is a hard lesson trust me. I don’t know why humans care so much about stuff in the first place its not really ours and when we die it just is left here. God owns it all so why not just do what he wants with his stuff. I wish it were only that simple of course. This has been a lesson that I have been learning lately so I encourage everyone learning this lesson and tell them to be ready because it is not an easy lesson to learn at all.
I was gonna say something about the whole generosity doesn’t only apply to money thing, then I saw that’s what everyone said. So I’ll talk about money. It seems to me that most wealthy people who are happy with their riches are VERY generous people! Generosity is one of the few traits that God literally tells us to test Him. If we are generous with our finances and other resources, God will multiply it! I have seen this many times in real life and in the bible, an it God always keeps His promises.
In my opinioni i believe that generosity is very important! Some people may be generous in front of people just so they can gain a pat on the back or something but that is not right at all. Be generous in general not just for the fame. We should be more generous to people and instead of caring about us care about others!
We can show generosity in many different ways. One way is generosity through money but there are different, more important variations. You can be spiritually generous to others by sharing the word of God with them or just being there for them. Treating each other well is a form of generosity.
Generosity is a lot more than just giving money. It is also giving up your time and doing more for others than you do for yourself. In many ways this is the key aspect of Christianity because it is how we build our reputation. If we aren’t generous, then we get dismissed as hypocrites. And if Christians are thought of as nothing more than hypocrites, why would anyone want to become one?
We as sinners rely on God being generous with us like sending his son to die for us. Without his generosity we would be nothing.
i agree. deep stuff.
Generosity is a spiritual gift that we can use to glorify God. Generosity isn’t just giving because you know its right but its being joyful about giving. Generosity is not just financial, but we can give time to help others, we can give up time that we usually hang out with friends, we can give attention to people that need it, and also we can give kindness so someone. God showed generosity to us by sending his son for us.
Generosity is something we should include in our everyday lives, not just a quality we have once a year around Christmas time. This is an easy way to show God’s love to others and it makes you feel good about yourself as well. Generosity doesn’t have to be materialistic as well. Doing small Christ-like actions can also show generosity.
generosity is about givving freelly and giving with an open heart. you dont have to be rich to give because the poorest person can be the most generous.
generosity is a trait everyone should have even if they are christians. we should give nicely and freely give our problems maybe to God. it is very easy to get selfish and not be generous to people. we as christians should give freely to those who may need it or even those who have everything.
Mark 12:41-44 is my favorite passages about generosity in the Bible. Sadly, our world has corrupted the what it means to give. Celebrities do it for good PR after they just got arrested for a DUI or something. Politicians give to get elected. Some people have unspoken competitions about who can give the most. Of course, I’m speaking in generalities but our minds really are convoluted when it comes to giving. I think generosity is one of the biggest areas that floating fruit appears. I find it really cool to save my tithing and wait for God tell me where to use it because I’ve had it be the exact amount the person needs. Or it’s for a really cool cause. I think we need to step back and ask God for these generosity roots. I know genuine motives thoroughly please God, as we see in the passage, and it’s really cool personally as well.
Generosity can be acted out with pure intentions but it can also be used as a mask to appear generous or “good”. Generosity can include money, time, or talents. Christ was very generous and it is just another trait that we should try to emulate in our own lives.
I feel like generosity goes along with our verse this week because it talks about not being selfish and thinking of others as more important than yourself and when you’re being generous that’s what you’re doing. And when you’re being generous you’re not looking out for your own personal interests, you’re looking out for the interests of others with everything you have and expecting nothing in return.
Don’t know why, but this reminded me of the sea-monkey analogy (which i laughed at, but loved). It made me think of our lives in such a different way….we are SO finite! What we see as infinite God can move with His breath. Oh, and the whole concept about how He’s outside of time? Our lives probably only seem like two days to him. Yet he can pick, at random, any one of us millions of nasty seamonkeys, and be able to tell us more about ourselves than we can ever know. Then He took it one step further, and became one of us disgusting little creatures. Then he died, even for the people who HATE him. I could never do that (I avoid the people who hate me at all costs). It just gave me some new perspective which is always kinda cool.
i agree with Hawley about generosity not just relating to money. in the passage you gave us, 2 Corinthians 8:9, it says “though He was rich, yet for your sake became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.”. i think this refers to Jesus being rich with Christ and with faith and i think Him coming down to earth was Him sharing those riches with all of us, showing his insane generosity.
I agree with Hawley too because when i think of generosity I think of money and giving it out but although it’s partially related it’s not the only way to be generous to someone. And I really like how Lauren said that it’s related to the sea monkey ananlogies because I loved that analogy and it really shows how in comparison God put himself into a Seamonkey (Metaphorically) in order that He would be able to come down and save us, despite the fact that He knew there would be rejection.
Generosity is important in the life of a christian. You must give without thought of reward. If this doesn’t sound like anything you could do, just keep giving until it becomes natural and you won’t be doing it directly for the pleasure of God, but for that feeling you get afterwards.
I think alot of us see being generous as giving money to a homeless person, and yeah that is super generous, being generous isnt just that, when Mrs. Logain stays after school with us to help us with math, thats generous, when your mom changes her plans to help you out, thats generous we can all be generous at school, we dont need money to be generous, we need a kind heart.
Generosity to me giving when your in need. Of course it is important to give out of your wealth but for me personally it is more important when you dont have much and still give. Signing up for a extra service project when you have so much else going on that weekend, calling a hurting friend when you have hours of homework to do, or simply running slow with someone who doesnt talk much at practice when you could get more out of it to run faster. It thinking outside yourself, knowing this will hurt you but help them. thats generosity.
Generosity is important I am some time generous the more generous you are the better your life will be
Everyone should read Steven’s post. It is very insightful and extremely well thought out.
Generosity is a hard quality to have. You can be generous but it doesn’t mean that you are sincere about it. If you give to a charity and then all you do is gloat about it, what you did was generous but how you are going about it is not Christlike at all. It kind of ties into humility last week. If you do something generous but you do it for the wrong reasons, you aren’t showing Christ’s love through it at all.
Generosity is a trait that we all need in life to have a good christian walk. Jesus was the best generosity person ever and we always want to strive to be like Him. Through self-discipline and unselfishness we can become more generous. You only have to tithe10 percent
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Generosity more than just giving money to people. Generosity is truly loving people and giving of your time, which is one of the most precious things this day in age. I need to work on being more generous.
Generosity should not be restricted to only giving money to the church and being generous to nice people at church. We have to learn to show generosity to everyone especially the ones that we dislike. Being generous also includes giving even when we don’t have a lot just like the feeding of the five thousand when the boy only had a small amount of food and he gave it away out of pure generosity.
When I think of generosity I think about how we are supposed to give to others out of the goodness of our hearts and not to make ourselves look better in Jesus’ “scorebook”. Generosity doesn’t always have to be associated with money, it can be along the lines of helping a firend out with homework or just doing a “good deed”.
I feel like people see generosity as a one time thing, or something you do on a daily basis. But I think God really wants us to be generous consistently. He wants us to share what He has blessed us with regularly, not just when we have a litte extra. As a lot of other’s have said generosity doesn’t just have to do with money or perishable items. We can show generosity in sharing our talents, spiritual gifts, or just being open to sharing with others.
Being generous is something that stems out of gratefulness. If you are grateful for something, then you will realize that you don’t deserve it and maybe you’ll consider giving others what they don’t deserve. It’s not really possible to be generous if you believe that you deserve everything that you have. It’s just not a reasonable thing to think.
I think my whole outlook on generousity and giving has been transformed by the idea that all we have is God’s. He gives to us freely and only asks that we spend 10% of it doing something for Him. In other words, HE LETS US KEEP 90% OF WHAT IS HIS!! When I started thinking on this, it became so much easier to give to others of my time, money, help, thoughts, encouragements, etc. I am so much more willing to use what God has given me to aid others and to see His work increase. I have faith that God will provide all my needs. He has blessed me with infinitely more than I deserve (since I deserve death, punishment, and hell) so how can I not give freely to the One that has given everything to me?! That then extends to other people as well because I have so much so I must give to them, freely, trusting that God will always provide for my needs.
Generosity is alot of things. from giving money to giving time to giving someone your ear to listen. it isnt uncommon to “see” people act generous. But generostiy isnt just doing these things. anyone can give and give and give but still not be happy about it. i think generosity starts with the heart. you have to be happy to give to someone, it has to mean something to you or else it really means nothing to God. He wants our hearts as well as our actions, but the heart always comes before the action. Just as generousity comes after having a willing and joyful heart.
Generosity is a good character to have as Christians. Generostiy is giving your time and your energy to someone else so its a selfless character trait.
Jesus is the perfect example for generosity. He spent his time helping other people learn to know God and feeding other people, etc, rather than for himself. It is a selfless trait. With the right intentions, being generous can change a persons life.
As christians, it’s really important that we have the characteristic Generosity.We should be helping people less fortunate then us. It’s importantto do a selfless act.
Generosity is giving people things that you don’t want to give away like money. Generosity can also mean sharing your faith with others.
To me I feel that when your generous I feel you have to give with a thankful heart. Also to not have to hunk about giving but to give without Second thought
Generosity is based upon the person. $1 for one person can be extremely generous, whilte $100 for another can be extremely selfish. Generosity isn’t based on material things, but the immaterial as well. Ideas, talents, and other attributes can also be generous. God has been so generous towards us, in ways that we don’t even realize.
Generosity is a great character trait. Once you realize that nothing we have is ours, it’s Gods, then you will see everyone as equal. We are all deserving and not one of us should have more. Generosity is like being selfless and giving your money, time and love to people that need it.
If people are not generous they dont help people like they should. If we are generous we can reach out and be the light in some peoples life. When people see someone that is not generous they often think that that specific person is not Christ like.
Generosity, is giving more than you have to give. Whether it is love or possessions, it is an amazing character to have .