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Author: Jean Pierre Fahed, from the Servants of the Word, an international, ecumenical brotherhood of men living single for the Lord.

In the his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul writes, “Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.” (2 Corinthians 9:6)

In the business world, when you make a good financial investment, this rule applies: the more money you invest, the more money you gain. But because it is really difficult to know which investments will make money and which will lose money, investors tend to spread their money into different kinds of investments to reduce the risk.

In Christian life, we can sometimes have a similar attitude - we can give parts of our life to the Lord but "keep our options open." If we truly believe in God, then we should trust him with our whole lives and the first thing on our priority list should be to do his will. Here Paul speaks of sowing bountifully, which means being generous in giving our lives to God. If we sow bountifully, we will experience his blessing generously, although this does not means financial prosperity or an easy life. Rather, we experience his blessing by receiving the fruits of the Spirit: "love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control" (Gal. 5:22-23). Moreover, being generous with God means being generous with other human beings. Jesus says "whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me" (Matt. 25:40).

Ask yourself today: How can I be more generous in living my life for God?

Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.