Tis the season, and as you go about your daily routine this month you will no doubt be asked to donate $$$ to various charities while shopping. The freezing cold salvation army bell ringer will tug at your conscience until you hurry past him to get into the store. As you are confronted with these opportunities to give your money, why not consider this thought from the Bible:
The Bible is full of ideas that are contrary to human common sense. Six times in the Bible do we see Jesus warn us that to save our life, we must lose it, and those that try in their own merit to save their lives will lose their life. Almost as many times we are told that the first shall be last and the last shall be first.
One of my favorite opposites in the Bible is this verse:
Proverbs 11:24 – There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty.
What a bizarre idea! The man that scattereth his money will increase but the man that withholdeth for himself even more than he should will slide towards poverty. Just like many verses in the Bible, I believe that this also applies to lost people as well as the Christian. Proverbs is full of general wisdom like this that applies to anyone.
How can this be? I believe this verse is talking about or attitude towards money. When we learn to give and let go of our money we are learning a valuable life philosophy that having money is not the primary goal and as a result, you learn to receive happiness and joy. This results in a greater ability to connect with people, create friendships, and have a more successful life. If you hoard your money, you will develop greedy, miserly attitudes that will develop into nasty habits that will eventually be your downfall.
Learning to give money is an essential life skill to develop. It sounds counter intuitive, but we see right here that the man who withholdeth tendeth to poverty. Learn to give, and if you’re going to give – why not give to the church of God and not some random charity this year?
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December 13th, 2010
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