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The question for today is: Share one instance in which you felt joyful in giving money to God's work in the church or in the community.

Today's post:

The Reward of Sufficiency
A pastor, remembering his youth, recalls attending the last worship service in his home congregation before returning to college from summer vacation. The young man who was with him had become a Christian during the summer and wanted to attend the same Christian college, but his total resources amounted to only forty dollars. He needed a financial miracle. When the offering plate went by. the pastor was shocked to see his friend put in twenty dollars. When asked why he did that, he said, "Everything I have came from God. Why shouldn't I give half of it back? God knows what I need."
That action, though radical when viewed from a rational perspective, seems consistent with several statements of Jesus and Paul from the New Testament:
• "Give, and it will be given to you" (Luke 6:38)
• "Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under
compulsion, for God loves a cheerful given. And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work" (2 Corinthians 9:7-8)
• "You will be enriched in every way for your great generosity..." (2 Corinthians 9:11)
The result of that college student's radical act of giving twenty dollars is also consistent with the experiences of countless Christians. "Anytime I give God fifty cents, God gives me back a dollar," a woman said. "Give 10 percent of your gross income to God," a man said. "Save 10 percent for your family's future, and you will never have a financial problem you cannot solve." Ann of Austria once said to Cardinal Mazarin, "My lord Cardinal, God does not pay at the end of every week: nevertheless, he pays."
The impoverishment of our lives does not always start with poor income: sometimes it starts with poor outgo. We do not receive because we do not give. Martin Luther said that he had held many things in his hands but he had lost them all. The only things he still had were those he had placed in God's hands. A rich king instructed that his body be displayed at his funeral with open, out-stretched fingers, palms up. In death, he still wanted to express his conviction that all we have is what God gives us and what we give away to others. If we think we ever really hold anything in our hands, we are kidding ourselves. They are always empty. Yet, as we give unselfishly to help others, God gives us sufficiency: "Give, and it will be given to you" (Luke 6:38)

Pator WaynO