Source of Joy and Wealth [2 Corinthians 8]

1Now, brethren, we wish to make known to you the grace of God which has been given in the churches of Macedonia, 2that in a great ordeal of affliction their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality.

9For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.

God wants us to overflow with joy and wealth. He went to an awful lot of pain and trouble to make that joy and wealth available to us. It cost Him the humiliation of becoming a fetus in Mary's womb and having to undergo the indignity of emerging out of the birth canal, only to be subject to human parents and siblings who didn't really understand Him or His destiny on earth. I can't imagine how God could do that for us and yet there was so much more Jesus had to do before we could have unlimited access to Him and the grace He lavishly showers upon us all of the time. Jesus who is light and life gave up that life so that you and I could overflow with joy and wealth in our affliction and poverty. The joy and wealth are there for the taking, however, they are not automatic nor physical, but way better than physical joy and wealth. All we have to have for God's amazing grace is spiritual poverty, pain, distress, weakness or just an awareness of how feeble we really are in light of who God is. All we have to do is exchange what we have for what He is providing in an on-going way and the joy and wealth will overflow out of our afflictions and deep poverty as it did with the Macedonians in 2 Corinthians 8. God loves you so much and wants to be invited into your life each and every day and moment by moment so that He can grace you beyond belief. The end result will be not only joy and wealth for you, but an overflow of spiritual joy and wealth to all those who know you.

We praise You God that You were willing to give up Your riches to become one of us, so that we could give you our broken humanity to be filled with Your abundant life, light and grace. Cause us to constantly be aware of our poverty so that we can exchange it for your joy and riches... your amazing grace.

Beth Warlick, 6/25/2009