The smooth tricks of scoundrels are evil. They plot crooked schemes. They lie to convict the poor, even when the cause of the poor is just. But generous people plan to do what is generous, and they stand firm in their generosity. Isaiah 32:7-8
“The Word tells us that there is no better way to improve our estates than to lay them out with a cheerful liberality for God; and that it will not be to our advantage to withhold our hands when God and duty call us to distribute. Consult providence now, and you will find that, in all respects, it is according to the report of the Word. O how true is the Scripture testimony in this respect!
Many thousands of witnesses now living can set their seals to both parts of this proposition. What men save (as they count saving) with one hand, providence scatters by another hand; and what they scatter abroad with a liberal hand and single eye for God, is surely repaid to them or theirs. No man ever lost by distributing for God. He that lends to the poor lends to the LORD, or as some expound that text, puts his money to interest to the LORD. Some have observed how providence has doubled all they have laid out for God, in ways they did not expect.”
John Flavel (1630-1691), an English Presbyterian Minister in The Mystery of Divine Providence (London: W. Baynes & Son, 1820) 71-72. Of course I loved reading through this ebook this morning as “providence” is my word for 2017.
Flavel included Isaiah 32:8 along with some other Scriptures in this section, but this particular text moved me. Our generosity, when flowing from a “a liberal hand and a single eye” stands firm. That expression reminds me of the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount.
Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be. Your eye is like a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is filled with light. But when your eye is unhealthy, your whole body is filled with darkness. And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is! No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money. Matthew 6:19-24
Let us each work hard and may God bless us with abundant resources. Rather than storing them up on earth, let us put people to work in our businesses while exhibiting “cheerful liberality for God” knowing that we are following God’s firm pattern, which is fueled by providence.
Flavel would add: don’t let fear limit your liberality, for “no man ever lost by distributing for God.”