By Erin Cackler, mission development minister
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are humans that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? Yet you have made them a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honor.
When seeking to live a life of grace and generosity, we can sometimes lose sight and start to feel taken for granted or feel resentful. This happens when we stop looking at the breadth and depth of where our grace and generosity come from.
God gives abundantly to us, without expectation or thought of return. When we acknowledge and receive God’s abundant love, then grace and generosity can overflow from us.
Imagine there is a tray with an empty cup on it; to the side is a jug with water in it. The jug represents God, the water is Jesus and all of God’s love. The empty cup is you, and the tray beneath the cup is the world/other people. Allow God to pour into you. As God pours, your cup starts to fill, and soon it overflows, spilling onto the tray and into the world. This is how we should think of grace and generosity. Receive and acknowledge the abundance that God is sharing with you. Then allow your response to overflow from you as effortlessly as the water overflows from the cup, spilling into lives around you.
When we stop being aware of the abundance God is sharing with us, when we stop our spiritual practices, praying, taking time to acknowledge the generosity of God in our lives, it’s like we turn our cup upside-down. God’s abundance can’t reach the depths of our heart; we aren’t able to be filled. We try to pour from an empty cup to those around us.
Allow God to pour into you. Acknowledge God’s abundance in your life and be filled. Then allow grace and generosity to flow from you, without thought of return.
“Opportunities abound in your DAILY lives if you choose to see them” (Doctrine and Covenants 165:1c).
Prayer Phrase
“You will be enriched in every way for your great generosity” (2 Corinthians 9:11).
Spiritual Practice
Overflowing Generosity
Spend five minutes thinking deeply about how God has shared abundantly with you in very specific ways. Where do you see God’s abundant generosity in your life? Say a prayer of thanksgiving for these blessings. Now, reminded of these blessings, think about how you can bless others. In what ways can God’s abundant generosity overflow from you to others? What specific blessing will you share with another this day?
Today’s Prayer for Peace
Engage in a daily practice of praying for peace in our world. Click here to read today’s prayer and be part of this practice of peace.