In Touch Devotional By Dr Charles Stanley

In Touch Devotional 25th February 2024 || A Beautiful Simplicity

READ IN TOUCH DAILY DEVOTIONAL FOR SUNDAY 25 FEBRUARY 2024

You are welcome to Today’s In Touch Daily Devotional written by Dr Charles Stanley and published by In Touch Ministry. Charles F. Stanley is the founder of In Touch Ministries and a New York Times best-selling author. He demonstrates a keen awareness of people’s needs and provides Christ-centered biblically-based principles for everyday life.

Today’s Topic: A Beautiful Simplicity

Our giving should reflect the generosity and grace of our Lord.

Scripture: 2 Corinthians 8:1-15

1 Moreover, brethren, we do you to wit of the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia;

2 How that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality.

3 For to their power, I bear record, yea, and beyond their power they were willing of themselves;

4 Praying us with much intreaty that we would receive the gift, and take upon us the fellowship of the ministering to the saints.

5 And this they did, not as we hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God.

6 Insomuch that we desired Titus, that as he had begun, so he would also finish in you the same grace also.

7 Therefore, as ye abound in every thing, in faith, and utterance, and knowledge, and in all diligence, and in your love to us, see that ye abound in this grace also.

8 I speak not by commandment, but by occasion of the forwardness of others, and to prove the sincerity of your love.

9 For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.

10 And herein I give my advice: for this is expedient for you, who have begun before, not only to do, but also to be forward a year ago.

11 Now therefore perform the doing of it; that as there was a readiness to will, so there may be a performance also out of that which ye have.

12 For if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not.

13 For I mean not that other men be eased, and ye burdened:

14 But by an equality, that now at this time your abundance may be a supply for their want, that their abundance also may be a supply for your want: that there may be equality:

15 As it is written, He that had gathered much had nothing over; and he that had gathered little had no lack.

IN TOUCH DAILY DEVOTIONAL MESSAGE FOR FEBRUARY 25TH, 2024

Today we return to Romans 12:8 to explore the next spiritual gift—generosity. As before, Paul’s directive is concise: “The one who gives” should do so “with generosity.” Our English translation may not seem to offer much guidance, but the Greek contains a beautiful visual we’d do well to examine.

The word Paul uses for “gives” is metadidómi, and it means precisely what we think it should—“to share, bestow, or give a share of.” But he tells us we should give “with generosity.” In some translations, “liberality” or “generously” is used, but that doesn’t quite get at the heart of what he’s trying to say. The Greek word is haplotés. We translate it as “simplicity, sincerity, purity, or graciousness,” but it literally means “not folded” or “not compounded or needlessly complex.” Imagine a bedsheet hanging on a laundry line—its wide, flat expanse drying in the afternoon sun is haplotés. Compare that to a fitted sheet, which is all seams, puckers, and corners and utterly impossible to fold neatly.

Paul is saying that our giving should be straightforward, not tied up in some complicated system of rules or justifications. We shouldn’t put elaborate stipulations on our generosity or run down a strict checklist to see if someone is “worthy.” Rather, we should simply give of what we have as the Holy Spirit leads.

Bible in One Year: Deuteronomy 12-14