#4 — A Case For Generosity

If you help the poor, you are lending to the Lord — and he will repay you! (Proverbs 19:17 NLT)

• If you are helping poor people in society, this is God’s promise to you. If you help the poor expecting nothing in return, this is His promise to you. God is not a man that He should lie. What He says he does. If He says that He will repay you, trust He will.
• Therefore, we do not waste money that goes to helping the poor. You are lending to the Lord your God in heaven who will repay you. Not might, can, maybe, God will repay you.
• This leaves us with paltry excuses about why we cannot help the poor.
• It also shows me that God does not like poverty at all. Associating Godliness with poverty is perhaps, demonic. If God is saying that He will pay you back all the money you used to help the poor, then that means that God will invest in the betterment of people’s livelihoods. God is saying here that He will partner with us to help the poor. He will finance the debt on your behalf. He will repay you and usually, God repays with interest on top…

“Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full — pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.” (Luke 6:38 NLT)

• Notice it says ‘if you help the poor…..’ It is not about giving away money. It’s more than that. It’s about helping the poor. You need to be more thoughtful about your giving. Ask yourself, is your giving truly helpful in every sense of that word? That applies to material and immaterial things alike. e.g. it may not be wise to give a drug addict money, but it’s better to arrange for therapy and education that might break him or her out of the shackles of poverty.

Perhaps, giving a drug addict money is not an act of love. It’s also not sustainable, just as giving money to the poor is mostly unsustainable. If you give money to a person who cannot manage it, he will squander it. Better to look for ways to empower people to sharpen and work for themselves to provide for themselves.

• This brings us back to motives. It all comes down to our motives. It is not about what you give or how much you give that matters (although both are still relevant), it’s more about why you are giving. What’s your reason for giving?

End.