LifeLink Devotions for Friday, September 18, 2026

As I studied for today’s devotional I learned an important principle from Scripture. Thankfulness produces generosity.

Unthankful people are selfish and they hoard for themselves whatever they receive because they believe that they deserve it and it’s only for them. But thankful people are people who share with others because they realize that they don’t deserve what they have received and so they’re going to be generous with it.

In our walk with Jesus Christ, having received salvation and all the blessings of intimacy with Jesus that are not deserved, we should be generous people. But most of us would think we are generous. We give gifts to others in our family and we even maybe give gifts to people we don’t know because we understand their need. But at the root of all of our generosity is to be generous to Christ and his church. But not many of us want to listen to or consider the challenge of Scripture to be generous in the offering plate at church.

In Second Chronicles chapter 14 the nation of Israel is being confronted with a formidable enemy. An army of 1,000,000 soldiers has come from Ethiopia to do battle with them. As any of us would be, the people of Israel were scared and they cry out to God for his help. And in the subsequent battle not only did the nation of Israel prevail but they destroyed every member of that army. And they went through the land and they captured untold wealth and took it as their own.

Then in an act of thanksgiving and worship to the God who protected them and empowered them, they held a worship service. One part of that worship service is described in 2 Chronicles 15:11.

“They sacrificed to the Lord on that day from the spoil that they had brought 700 oxen and 7,000 sheep.”

Notice again the phrase “on that day.” On the day that they received from God the blessing of victory they became a generous people by making a sacrifice unto God.

My point today is this. By faith in Jesus Christ and his death on the cross you have been given victory over sin and every enemy of your soul. There is nothing in this life or in the spiritual realm that can ever separate you from the love of God. So why is it so hard, as an expression of your thanksgiving, to manage your personal resources so that God gets the first fruits of everything that you receive? Could it be that we truly are not all that thankful for our salvation?

My dear friends, take some time to contemplate where you would be without Christ. Consider the depth of sin in which you would live and the hopelessness of your eternal state. Then start singing the song of thanksgiving to the one who gave you life eternal and has provided you with all things necessary to live for him in this life. I guarantee you that something will happen in your heart. That thanksgiving will overflow into a spirit of generosity so that you willingly and lovingly give to the Kingdom work of Jesus Christ with the best that you have.

Thanksgiving produces generosity. So as you develop the habit of being thankful, allow your heart to become more generous toward the work of the Lord. Make sacrificial giving a vital part of your expression of worship to Jesus.

Pastor John