It’s a chilly Friday evening in December. You quickly meander through the parking lot in search of your car, urgent to escape the cold. As you approach your car, you notice a person huddled beside it, and you are amazed to recognize Jesus, in the flesh, waiting for you.
To your astonishment, His clothes are tattered and weathered with dirt. His hair is matted, as if he hasn’t showered in weeks. His emaciated frame shivers as he coughs, pleading for a water bottle, some food, a jacket, or any cash you can spare.
You wonder what sickness He caught when he asks if he can stay with you for the night. He pushes this further, asking for help with medical attention.
What Do You Do?
While this situation may seem preposterous, Jesus speaks of how we will someday ask him, “Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in or naked and clothe You? When did we see You sick [and look after you] or in prison and visit You?” (Matthew 25:37-39).
King Jesus replies, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me” (Matthew 25:40). At this, the righteous who cared for Jesus inherit eternal life, and others are sent away into eternal punishment.
While the Bible clearly emphasizes that we are saved by grace alone through faith in Jesus and forgiven of our sins by God’s kindness, passages like Matthew 25 remind us of Jesus’s command that those who love Him must love His people too and help meet their tangible needs.
1 John 3:17 poses a similar question: If we see a brother or sister in need and do nothing, how is it possible that God’s love abides in us if we can be so callous and closed towards those in need?
This is easier said than done. Loving others in this way can be costly, but as we spend time with God, put Him first, and ask Him to soften our hearts, He can loosen our control on our belongings, and we’ll experience the truth that giving leads to greater happiness than receiving (Acts 20:35).
Being Blessed to Bless Others
Can you imagine being the type of person who never worries about anything? To be so content with your circumstances and confident in God’s provision that you can bless others abundantly as God blesses you daily in greater ways than you could ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20)? This sounds like the freest and happiest person ever.
And yet, this is God’s design and will for us. In Luke 6:38, Jesus teaches that, as we give generously, God will give to us lavishly until the blessings are running over into our laps. How much would we give if we realized that God plans to return to us the same amount that we share with others?
“Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” Luke 6:38.
For some of us, he calls us to give even when we fear we may run out ourselves, blessing us after we take the first step towards obeying Him. But for others, he has already blessed us, giving us more than enough now with the expectation that we wouldn’t hoard blessings but share them with those in need around us. Perhaps faith is believing Jesus’s words—that he would provide more than enough for us as we give—and obeying His call.
We pray for Him to clothe and feed us as he cares for flowers and birds (Matthew 6:30), but sometimes, he gives us the money to care for others and ourselves. In Acts 4:32, we observe radical generosity from the early church, perhaps fueled by their shocking underlying belief: “Not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own, but all things were common property to them…and abundant grace was upon them all.”
Yes, in a legal sense, certain items belonged to each disciple. However, they understood Deuteronomy 8:17-18’s message—God has entrusted these items to us, but we are stewards managing God’s resources, and as we do, he blesses us with abundant grace.
To illustrate this point, God gave me the vision of my credit card belonging to Him. In a sense, this is true—if God gifted me my job, income, talents, mind, body, and ability to work, my bank account belongs to Him. Deuteronomy 8:17-18 says: “You might say to yourself, “I am rich because of my own power and strength,” but remember the Lord your God! It is he who gives you the power to become rich, keeping the agreement he promised to your ancestors, as it is today.”
Imagine God giving you your credit card, a certain amount of cash, your paycheck, or whatever you hold dear and saying:
“My precious child, I am giving this to you to steward on my behalf. Spend this wisely for me; steward it well.”
I believe having this mindset would prevent us from being wasteful, as we are trusted stewards of God’s money, but neither would we want to hoard this in fear, as we are His dear children, so he wants us to take care of ourselves and others. Worrying that we will run out may make sense in our world of finite resources, but our Father creates things out of nothing and owns everything.
Changing Our Perspectives on Possessions
Southlands Elder Ryan MacDonald preaches on how superabundance is in God’s nature. In fact, God designed the Earth to be self-sufficient and produce exponentially. One mature apple tree can produce more than two hundred apples annually, and the Earth currently produces enough food to cover double the human population. Obeying the One who has storehouses of treasures in Heaven, where we cannot take our earthly resources, is wisdom. Recognizing we will someday report back to Him with how we used not only our time and talents but also our resources can encourage us to steward wisely.
In her book Seated with Christ, Heather Holleman writes, “[Believers] don’t [need] to worry about affluence anymore because they know they have access to the riches of God. I have access to the riches of God. They are available to me at all times…Paul writes, ‘My God will meet all your needs according to the riches of His glory in Christ Jesus.’ I began a practice of writing down ‘all my needs.’ I have twenty years’ worth of prayer journals that showcase God’s provision of housing, clothing, transportation, and food. I even have recorded nonessential items that God provides for my enjoyment” (Philippians 4:19).
In Luke 12, Jesus tells the parable of a certain rich man who produces a great crop. He thinks, “‘What shall I do, since I have nowhere to store my crops?’ Then he said, ‘This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and will build bigger ones, and there I will store up all my grain and my goods. Then I will say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take it easy. Eat, drink, and be merry!’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be required of you. Then who will own what you have accumulated?’ This is how it will be for anyone who stores up treasure for himself but is not rich toward God.”
I often face the urge to hoard money and resources to maintain my false sense of security. If I hold onto my money, then I have a fallback option if things fall apart. However, Christ lovingly wants to be my greatest treasure and fallback option while providing the best for me. Instead of being prideful for our ability to save or for our possessions, could we make it our aim to love people generously and be like Christ?
At present, we might feel an unrelenting grip over our wallets and resources. Rather than condemning ourselves for our stinginess, giving up in despair, or shrugging off the matter, we are gently and lovingly invited by God our Father to come to Him, honestly share our shortcomings, and ask Him to transform us into the generous people he designed us to be.
If a caring father watched his child hoard her toys, I do not believe he would chide or neglect her. Rather, he would patiently stoop down and listen to her, guiding and teaching her. He will always help us to become more of who he made us to be (Max Lucado). And unlike human fathers, God has the power to change our hearts and set us free from sin. He has already liberated us from the grip of sin in our lives—now, he invites us to step out of our former ways of living and walk with Him (Ephesians 4:22-24).
In every sin or struggle I have overcome, I experienced freedom not from adopting a new habit, reading a new book, or believing a new philosophy. Transformation occurred because I cried out to God, asking Him to change my heart and heal me. After this surrender, I would sense the Spirit leading and opening my eyes to little ways I could obey Him each day. Sometimes, God sets people free from struggles instantaneously. Other times, growth results as we continue to show up before God, surrender our sins, and patiently trust Him to heal us, obeying Him where we can. When God speaks to you, respond. Not only will you have the opportunity to be a part of His beautiful plans, but this is the very way he plans and promises to bless you. By hesitating to be generous, are we robbing ourselves of the opportunity to be a blessed and be blessed by God?
The trendy clothing, beautiful homes, artisan coffee, new shoes, fine handbags, and prized cars that we cling to so tightly in this lifetime will not make it into the next. On the contrary, 2 Peter 3:10 explains how these items will eventually be burned up.
What will last into eternity? People’s souls. And our good deeds. Revelation 19:8 describes how we will someday be clothed in fine clothing, which represents the good deeds of God’s holy people (Revelation 19:8). Let’s invest in something eternal.
“I do not believe one can settle how much we ought to give. I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare. In other words, if our expenditure on comforts, luxuries, amusements, etc. is up to the standard common among those with the same income as our own, we are probably giving away too little. If our charities do not at all pinch or hamper us, I should say they are too small. There ought to be things we should like to do and cannot do because our charitable expenditure excludes them.” – C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity.
How to Give
- “On the first day of each week, set aside a sum of money” (1 Corinthians 16:2) for your church, trusted organizations, or people God places on your heart. Biblical generosity will never happen accidentally—we must make a practice of being intentionally generous or else we weaken this muscle.
- Always be ready to meet the local needs of anyone who asks (Luke 6:29-30), with a specific emphasis on fellow believers and the poor.