To Give Or Not To Give

Proverbs 11:24

Once man gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty.

This is something, I think, we all need to remember.  The society we find ourselves in today tells us the exact opposite of this verse.  We’re told that we need to get all we can get and hold onto that for dear life, only letting go if we’ll get more out of it.  And now we’ve embraced that whole heartedly.  It has been part of human nature since the beginning in the Garden of Eden, but only recently has it become the social norm.  It has become a rarity for someone to for another person without any ulterior motives and only for the satisfaction of helping another in need. 

Which is the exact opposite of how it should be.  We should be out there helping each other whenever the opportunity arises, just because we can.  It doesn’t even have to be anything huge.  We don’t know what is going on in the lives of the people around us.  Someone could be dealing with depression, and a friendly hello could be all it takes to keep them from taking their own life.  A smile, a wave, holding the door open, the smallest of things can have the biggest of impacts.  Sometimes that’s all a person needs to get them through another day. 

If you see an opportunity to help someone, do it.  I mean come on, what’s the worst that could happen?  They refuse your help and you walk away.  That’s not going to do anything.  But if you don’t offer that help at all, you could be missing the chance to make a huge impact in someone’s life.  Because people don’t care about God until we show them that there is something to care about.  They don’t want to hear us talking about Jesus and how awesome he is until they know that we believe it with everything we do. 

People want to see God, not hear about Him.  It’s up to us to live our lives so that anyone watching sees God through us. 

So give freely and you’ll be amazed at what happens.