The Devotional – 1099 – Foot Steps in Second Corinthians, On Going

The Devotional – 1099 – Foot Steps in Second Corinthians, On Going

I remember some years ago when I intended to grow a few rows of corn. I asked a friend and part time farmer how many kernels were needed to make sure that a corn stalk would grow. He said; “at least four – One for the stalk, two for a spare, the third for the cut worm and the fourth for the crow. Then he added, he who sows sparingly, reaps sparingly! Unfortunately we do not hear those words enough. Sowing and reaping is a fundamental truth that you will find throughout the Word of God. If you are wondering about my corn stalks, we had plenty of stalks for the seasonal scarecrow. And the Jolly Green Giant did not beat our door down for the corn we produced, I mean shucks! The shuck barely had any corn on it to shuck, so we ended up chucking the shuck. Some in the neighborhood were stalking us and we became known locally as “shuck chucker’s!” Shucks, I still get a chuckle out of this every time I think about it. 

CHALLENGES & COMMENTS – 2 Corinthians 9:6-14

It is the latter part of 1 Cor 9:6 for me that is very interesting, the NKJV says “and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully”. The word is found only once in the New Testament but it means more than what we think! The attitude for most of us is; God desires that we give more, that is more than we intend to give. Some believe that they must give out of compulsion, sort of a “slave mandate or a tax or fine imposed on them because they have been given the gift of salvation.

Flatly this is not true, there is no amount of money large enough to give to God that will pay for salvation; salvation is a gift. The Greek word pheidomenos means liberally in the sense of “Blessings” blessings that come from the givers heart with the intent to bless the receiver. This is explained for us in 1 Cor 9:7. We are to give as we purpose to do so and that would be “with blessings”. An example would be when we give a gift to someone because of some special moment in their life like a wedding. We say to them things like “congratulations” or “gee, I am so happy for you!”

What a kick in the teeth if we were to say to the groom or bride. “Here take this gift, just remember though, my vacation in two months will take a hit and I may even have to cut it short”! Seems to me that we are overly willing to say or think these thoughts when it comes to the matter of giving to God, but if we are giving to self, well that is a different matter; yes we are happy, maybe; but we are certainly not “blessed”. Matthew 6:19-21 but the whole chapter is a good read.

Remember to that if you feel that giving is a work of faith, you will be missing the gift of grace as verse 8 says plainly. “God is able to make all grace abound toward you”. We have had a lot of snow this year, you might say that God has made all snow abound “toward us” and it would be true, He did! But in the same example, if we gave as we ought in blessing, the piles of snow visible in the yard would be piles of grace in our soul. This is the fundamental truth found in Isaiah 55:8-13.

We will conclude with this and pick it up again tomorrow at verse 9.