Being Generous

"The wicked borrow and do not repay,

but the righteous give generously;

those the Lord blesses will inherit the land,

but those He curses will be cut off."

Psalm 37:21-22

Can you see the contrast here? The difference between the wicked and the righteous? This is something we should take into serious consideration. God makes a distinguishes between the wicked and the righteous. We can see that in Genesis 6, Ezekiel 3 & 18, Matthew 25, and finally in Revelation, most notably in chapters 14 & 20.

What does it mean to be righteous? For us today it is those who are cleansed by the blood of Christ who are considered righteous (1 John 1:9). This is the sign of the New Covenant with the Lord. Under the Old Covenant, before the cross, one was considered righteous by their obedience to God and His Law (Hebrews 11). Don't get me wrong, none of these men of faith or righteousness were perfect, just go read the Old Testament and you will see what I mean. What made them righteous is the fact that when they recognized their sin, their wrong doings before the Lord, they confessed their sins and did what was necessary to "cover" those sins at that time, which was by the sacrifice of the animals. That was instituted in Genesis 3.

Take a look too at how the righteous act. The righteous are generous and are blessed by God. The wicked do not repay, they do not share what they have, they do not think of others. Take a look at the world and you will see this. We have a very successful business in our little corner of the state that is run by a righteous man. When he began his business, he decided that he would give away 50% of his profits. It doesn't matter to who he gives them, they don't have to have a registered non-profit in order to give them money. I have heard of many stories of his generous blessings. Not to toot his own horn for that goes against Jesus' command in Matthew 6:3, but because he knows that is what delights the Lord.

I have always heard 2 things about being generous:

1. We can never out give God
   

2. This is the only area we are told to test God

I have found both to be true. Starting as a young couple, my husband at I lived paycheck to paycheck, and sometimes the paycheck didn't make it to the next one. We took a class at our church called Crown Financial, that was really eye opening. Previous to that we were not giving to our church regularly, "there is no way," is what our though was, we didn't have enough to live on, let alone give to the church. Yet we decided to trust God and began to give. First a little, and then we began to increase it. We now readily give a tenth, as the Old Testament commands, not that we are still under that Law, but it's just a nice easy number to work with. We probably give more than that, but for sure we make sure we give a 10th to the church. Let me tell you, both of those statements above are true. I don't get along with numbers to start with, but I can tell you there is no earthly mathematician that can work God's books. It just doesn't make sense. The Lord has blessed us greatly on this earth because of our faithfulness to Him. The most exciting part is what Jesus promises in Matthew 6:19-24. Nothing on this earth matters compared to the heavenly treasures. The Lord gives us a glimpse of what those heavenly treasures are here on this earth. Know too that His treasures and blessings are not always material things. I am happy with the non-material things, but the Lord is such an amazing giver that He gives material things as well, we just have to hold them very loosely. What does this have to do with horses and horsemanship? Well, we can be just as generous with our horse. Not that we need to give the horse everything possible, for not even the Lord does that. The number one thing a horse wants is to be left alone. That we can give them, when they give to us. Here it is: be generous with your release of the horse. When your horse moves in the right direction, even in thought, give a release. Don't hold onto your horse and force the right thing, you will create a horse that wants nothing more than to get away from you. Can you imagine if the Lord dealt with us the same way that we ride our horses? By pulling, and forcing, and holding, and never letting them take a wrong step. I used to ride and train like that and it made my job that much harder, but that was how I was taught. I remember the first time I got reunited with my mentor, Melanie Smith-Breidt; it had been several years, almost 10, and that first time we got together and I took a lesson with her again, she said to me, "everything I taught you in the past, forget it. I found a better way to ride." Boy was it different and I have been working to master it ever since. It's all about letting the horse have their free will and make mistakes and correcting them as much or as little as necessary. It's giving the horse "free rein" essentially to take responsibility for their part in this horse - man - relationship. It makes for a much better horse and much better riding. So be like God, that is what He desires. Being like God to our horse is great practice for taking it into the world. #CornerstoneVerseOfTheDay