If anyone is poor among your fellow Israelites in any of the towns of the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward them. Rather, be openhanded and freely lend them whatever they need. Deuteronomy 15:7-8
“We must take to heart, brothers, from what stuff we were created, who we were and what kind of creatures we were when we entered the world, as if from a tomb and from utter darkness. Having prepared for us bountifully before we were born. He who fashioned us and created us brought us into His world. Since, then, we owe all this to Him, we ought to give Him thanks for everything. “
Clement of Rome in A Dictionary of Quotes from the Saints, ed. Paul Thigpen (Charlotte: TAN Books, 2001) 281.
God’s people in the Old Testament were to live openhanded, generous lives with their brothers and sisters because God had been so generous to them. But we often get off track and think like the world. We think we became who we are and got what we’ve got from our own doing, our own effort.
We came from dust and were born with sin. When we realize this rightly we don’t see others as deserving or undeserving of our giving. We realize that all we are and all we have is thanks to the bountiful provision of our gracious God. This is the vital starting point for rich generosity.
May we be as generous to others as God has been to us. It was a miraculously productive time of ministry in Egypt despite COVID. Praising God for His bountiful blessings. Join me in acknowledging this and choosing to live generously in response.