Give What You Can When You Can
Oftentimes we find that we have the ability to do good, but not the willingness to carry it out. This can be from laziness, selfishness, or obliviousness, but Solomon– the wisest man who ever lived– encourages us to beat back these compulsions and to live a generous life.
When it is in your power,
Proverbs 3:27-28
don’t withhold good from the one to whom it belongs.
Don’t say to your neighbor, “Go away! Come back later.
It’ll give it tomorrow– when it is there with you.”
We are taught to protect our belongings from a young age, and selfishness is the default setting. This flows into how we treat others because we’re always protective of our own belongings, sometimes using the veneer of being “good stewards” to justify not living a generous life.
Yet believers in a God that owns all things, can control all things, and works all things together for our good should be generous people because of the God we serve. He is more than able to replace those things that we shared and let someone borrow, and the Lord himself reiterated this truth in the sermon on the mount when he went further than this:
Give to everyone who asks you, and from someone that takes your things, don’t ask for them back. … And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do what is good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High. For he is gracious to the ungrateful and evil.
Luke 6:30, 34-35
If this feels awkward, if you find yourself making excuses why you don’t have to do this command of the Lord, I urge you to pray, examine your heart, and look into God’s Word to see whether this is so, and allow the Holy Spirit to work in your life!
