”Now you should finish what you started. Let the eagerness you showed in the beginning be matched now by your giving. Give in proportion to what you have.” (2 Corinthians 8:11 NLT)
You can take this meditation as an apology or just a way to point to my humanity. Tuesday morning, I got up early and started working at 1:50 a.m. All I had to do first was to review and refine the meditation for that day and send it out. I thought I had sent it out before 2:45 a.m. But later in the morning, around 9:00 a.m., I looked in my draft file on my phone and the meditation was sitting there. I double checked to see if that was correct. I was sure I had completed that task, before going over some Bible Study notes, writing a draft for Wednesday’s meditation, and developing and finalizing an indoor baseball, sight word game for the last night of tutoring. I was wrong. So, I immediately pushed the send arrow and got it out. If any of you depend on hearing your phone, notifying you that your daily Mark Writes meditation is awaiting you, or if I did not get your God-consciousness going as early as usual, I apologize.
I learned my lesson: Even when your mind is in multiple places, make sure you complete what you started! However, there is a deeper lesson in this for all of us. So, it is true: “All things work together for good for those who love the Lord and are called according to His purpose.” But the deeper lesson is about giving, and it is one we can apply to the giving of our treasures, talents, and times, at our local church.
As you can see, in the context of the verse below, the Apostle Paul is speaking about the ministry of giving. Don’t let that word, “giving,” stop you from reading the passage below. Do I need to tell you the familiar passage you have heard before, as you get ready to read the closing below? Well, I will just in case. “And this is the word of God”? As always, read, reflect, and react accordingly. Smile! Be blessed!
“I am not commanding you to do this. But I am testing how genuine your love is by comparing it with the eagerness of the other churches. You know the generous grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Though he was rich yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty he could make you rich. Here is my advice: It would be good for you to finish what you started a year ago. Last year you were the first who wanted to give, and you were the first to begin doing it. Now you should finish what you started. Let the eagerness you showed in the beginning be matched now by your giving. Give in proportion to what you have. Whatever you give is acceptable if you give it eagerly. And give according to what you have, not what you don’t have. Of course, I don’t mean your giving should make life easy for others and hard for yourselves. I only mean that there should be some equality. Right now you have plenty and can help those who are in need. Later, they will have plenty and can share with you when you need it. In this way, things will be equal. As the Scriptures say, ‘Those who gathered a lot had nothing left over, and those who gathered only a little had enough.’”(2 Corinthians 8: 8-15 NLT)
Still committed to the climb,
Mark L. King