According to Your Offering

Remember this: The person who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the person who sows generously will also reap generously.
2 Corinthians 9:6 HCSB

https://bible.com/bible/72/2co.9.6.HCSB

Not sure which way to go with this one this morning. I mean besides the obvious. Obviously this text is speaking to the Corinthian Church about the nature of giving, this as Paul is encouraging them to lay aside a sin of money for the churches in Judea. The Judean churches at this time were undergoing a famine, and Paul was urging the Gentile churches to donate money to help them in their time of need. This in response to the gospel of Jesus being preached from the Jews to the Gentiles.

His teaching here is about their practice of giving. The promise is fulfilled by God. You have control on the amount that you give. But you have no control over how much you reap. Circumstances too big and too complicated for us control dictate the crop we recieve. But God controls those circumstances. God determines the size of the crop that you reap. So Paul is saying that the amount you sow will be determined by the heart that gives at the first. If it gives sparingly, then the return will be minimal. But if a heart gives generously, then that crop will also be generous. We may plant, but God gives the increase.

What seeds are you planning today? As you go about your daily tasks, will you be planting seeds of joy? Or doubt? Will your seeds be of love or of apathy? What you plant will come in harvest. When you sow trust and faithfulness, God sees your seed and rewards you according to your planting. Do you sow yourself into relationships? Parenting? Your spouse? A slim planting will result in a slim return. Says it right here in God’s word.

Father God, may you draw out eyes to the seeds we are planting today. Show us the fields in which we labor, so that we may sow bountiful and in not for the harvest to come. Only You can control the weather and the circumstances which whose seeds grow. May you see the heart that planted and reward accordingly. And Father, may the most important see we plant today, the gospel, sprout and grow in others as it has in us. In Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.