Tuesday after the Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on September 3, 2024 by under
Scripture: 2 Corinthians 9:6-11 (NKJV)
9:6 But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. 7 So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work. 9 As it is written:
“He has dispersed abroad, He has given to the poor; His righteousness endures forever.”
10 Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness, 11 while you are enriched in everything for all liberality, which causes thanksgiving through us to God.
Devotion
God supplies everything we need. He even provides for the needs of the evil and the unjust (Matt. 5:45). “Sparse” and “abundant” are relative ideas. What is “barely enough” for one person can be “super abundant” for another. The Lord’s wisdom calls on us to be honest and thoughtful about such things. What are our priorities? Do we really understand the needs of our neighbors (and enemies)? Do we actually care about the needs of the Church and her servants?
Our Lord gives us commands, examples, and ideas throughout His Word, and these are meant to teach us. Such things guide us as a parent guides his child. We hope our children mature to better understanding and greater works; our Father certainly desires the same for us as His children! If we hoard our resources for ourselves, then our heart is often turned in on itself. If we only worry about things for the body and this earthly life, then that means we have failed to understand better things about the treasures of heaven and the kingdom of our Lord. Just as our Lord uses all His gifts—physical and spiritual—to teach us about His eternal kingdom and life in Christ Jesus, we should use our resources to teach others. We need to teach and help our households, but we also need to help our brothers and sisters, our neighbors, and our enemies. And we are called to do so with our words and our acts.
Collect: Keep, we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy Church with Thy perpetual mercy; and, because the frailty of man without Thee cannot but fall, keep us ever by Thy help from all things hurtful, and lead us to all things profitable to our salvation; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
