BY GREG CRUM
“There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty. The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself.” Proverbs 11:24-25
Last week, we wrote about how upside-down the life of faith is compared to the norms of our worldly society. What they call good is bad, what they call right is wrong, but when you think about it, we were told that’s the way things would be in these last days, right? Yeah, we were forewarned! Isaiah 5:20 states that there would be “woe unto them” that chose to purposely convolute the truth in such a manner, and believe the Word, there is woe coming. Thankfully, not for us, though, by the mercy and grace of our Lord and his sacrifice for us, we will be physically redeemed from this planet, and spend a time celebrating with him until a new heaven and new earth are ready for our return!
With that said (and greatly looked forward to), right now we live in a world that is most often backwards, trying to swim as hard as it can in the opposite direction of what God would desire. Last week as we looked in II Corinthians 8:1-5, and again this week as we read Proverbs 11:24-25, we see that this is the case when it comes to an understanding of who is required to be generous with their resources. While the world insists that only the wealthiest should share (by force if necessary), the Word of God states that everyone is expected to give a portion of what God has provided for them to His work and to others. Now, while some would think this is unfair and insensitive of God to require and man to receive, in reality this doctrine of generosity from all puts rich and poor alike on equal ground, and opens the door for the Lord to increase the store of those with the least.
What? Are you sure about that? Absolutely! I know that it’s counterintuitive to believe that by giving away some when there is so little in the first place, one would increase, but that’s the Bible narrative, isn’t it? Of course it is! Read I Kings 17 again and you’ll see that God is great at taking the smallest of resources, along with big generosity on the part of man, and turning it into more than enough! That’s the understood foundation of verses like Acts 20:35, where we are told that it’s more blessed to give than to receive. We get to bless others, no matter our store of resources, and God can in turn provide for us all over again with more added besides!
That gets us to the point that the enemy doesn’t want those he has imprisoned in poverty to understand—the reasons God requires us all to be generous. God wants all, even the poorest, to be generous because that is one of the mechanisms that He uses to bring supernatural resources to us. When we give with the right heart, it is given back to us in good measure. (Luke 6:38) This is true of every resource God provides, spiritual and material. Giving generously where God directs opens the windows of heaven and pours all manner of blessing into our lives. (Malachi 3:10) How? Think about it, giving when you don’t have much to give in the first place is an ultimate demonstration of trust in God’s provision because there’s no “plan B” or stockpile to fall back on. How can God not respond to a trust in Him like that?!
Is that the only reason God wants us all to be generous though, just so He can get us more stuff? Nope, there’s another very important benefit in our generosity. It’s this: God wants all of us to give because it frees us from the control of material things (and those that control the flow as well). Releasing precious resources from our hand puts in motion the promises of the Word, and provision is bound to come when we’ve done this with the right mindset and heart. Once we see this process work in our lives, we build trust in our Father as a provider, and we wean ourselves off dependency on the world and its system. There is such freedom when we realize that we are not dependent on man to provide for us. We are free to live the way God has designed without compromise of His standards or morals, and that, brothers and sisters, is the life of faith that we all should aspire to live!
Greg Crum is the pastor of Calvary Temple in Lovely.