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Several years ago, a friend mentioned choosing a word for the year. It seemed a little trendy but nonetheless I liked the idea. She encouraged me to pray about it and see if the Lord revealed an area He would want me to concentrate on or be more aware of in 2022. The word that the Holy Spirit brought to mind was “generosity”. I didn’t mind this word as I figured there were much worse things I could have to focus on like the “p” word (…patience…).  So, I gladly invited the Lord to journey with me more into the depth of His character trait of offering a spirit of generosity in 2022.  

If I am being honest with you, I thought of myself (maybe even prided myself) in being generous already, but what the Lord would reveal through this next year would show me a whole new Christ-like level of generosity that I was nowhere near embodying.  

I had been trained to expect excellence of myself and that measuring stick was eventually placed onto others, and when that expectation wasn’t met, then I would become critical. Critical of the people around me who did not try as hard, work as hard, give as much, or deliver as often, and I lived in this disappointed and dissatisfied state for years. Sometimes, it would lead to sin like comparison, gossip, thinking of myself more highly than I ought or even belittling another of God’s human beings without giving the same grace that was extended to me by Jesus. See, I thought my 2022 year of “Generosity” was going to be about giving more money and more of my time but what God wanted to do was generously rid me of my critical spirit and grow me in my thoughts towards and about others.  

I clearly remember this year as one of deep mind work. Stopping my old thoughts and replacing them with God’s word became a daily and often moment-by-moment practice. It was a lot like building a muscle. I wanted my muscle memory to be that of thinking good of and not critically first. I had to retrain my mind to stay in my own lane, give grace to others, and lavish abundant generosity in my thoughts towards them. I found myself gradually shifting from a judgmental attitude to that of grace and not even worrying about what others were or were not doing. It was freeing to think the best of people. It was humbling too, in a small way, to allow God’s glory of free and abundant grace to be offered through me as a vessel to others while I am still here on earth.  

The Lord and I did do financial work that year as there were times we sacrificially gave and every time He multiplied it, and we grew in our faith of trusting Him financially as our ultimate provider. He gives us all we have anyway, so offering it back to Him as worship is a beautiful opportunity to glorify Him.  

By the end of 2022 I was very ready for a new word but practicing the spiritual discipline of generosity was indeed a true blessing. So how does this apply to our church-wide call to prayer and fasting? I guess I think of the generosity God showed to the Israelites, specifically how He freed them from slavery and how if they would listen to Him and keep away from idolatrous worship He would indeed provide for their needs.  

Psalm 81:10 says “I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.” If God will do the big things in our lives like freeing us from the sins that easily beset us, why don’t we think He will do the “anythings” we ask of Him in our prayer time?? He reminds us here through the Psalmist to open your mouth WIDE - ask Him for anything, big things, things you need - and He will fill it. He will answer our prayers! And you can count on it - because our God is a very GENEROUS God!