Precious Lord,
I really don’t measure up to Your standard of generosity. It sounds so simple, “Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away.”
I see them at the interstate exit. The cardboard signs. The impoverished families. The crippled beggar limping his way between the maze of waiting cars. I question, “Are they worthy?” “Is he a drunk–an addict?” I don’t want to throw my “pearls before swine!”
Instead of heeding Christ’s command, I find myself thinking, “I work hard for what I have. I pay my tithe and more. I give to worthy enterprises! I have to take care of my stuff. If I loan it out it might get damaged or destroyed." If I give someone a financial loan, I’d better get repaid on my timetable. If not, I am searching for that person to remind them to repay me!
I just don’t measure up to Your standard. I want to, but I don’t.
William Barclay (Matthew, vol. 1, pp. 168-170) tells that the ancient Rabbis had five governing principles for giving to needy people.
• A follower of God cannot refuse the obligation to give.
• The giver must give in a manner that fits the recipient’s real needs.
• The giver must do so in private, and keep the gift a secret.
• Give in a manner that is as helpful to the recipient as the gift.
• All giving is to God. “It is better to help a score of fraudulent beggars than to risk turning away the one man in real need.”
Sometimes they come to the door of my workplace begging for a handout. Often they are scammers, stinky, needy, even dangerous. I don’t want to be taken advantage of!
Is it that? Or am I cold, hard, unwilling to help?
Lord Jesus, I want to be living in obedience to your command to give. I don’t want the pragmatism of my age, the “what am I going to get out of it?” question, to render my soul lame, my heart icy, and my conscience seared with the very real needs of others. Help me to see beyond the shell to the worth of one soul.
In the Name of my most generous and giving Lord who never withholds from me,
Amen.
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