strike8echo
Member
- Joined
- Nov 19, 2019
- Messages
- 10
God is a Master Planner who has planned a Master Plan. Now, I have spent most of my life being told things like, "Only the strong can help the weak," or, "You have to fix yourself before you can help anyone else," and my personal favorite, "You have to take care of your own family first," but I am going to have to disagree. Those all seem like perfectly logical statements, at least until you consider that I am Christian and so are the people telling me those things. That still does not seem very strange to you, does it? In fact, you may be wondering how I can call myself Christian and still say I disagree with those arguments. The answer is the Plan. Allow me to explain.
God is all-powerful and all-knowing, existing everywhere at all times because he is not bound by time and space which he created for our understanding of existence. God is perfect. Perfect is defined as being completely free from faults or defects, meaning such an entity would be incapable of making a mistake, being incorrect, or failing at anything. If God is perfect, then his Plan must also be perfect. If the Plan is perfect, then it must account for absolutely everything that could ever possibly happen in all of existence, without exception. If the plan accounts for everything, then it is impossible for us humans to mess it up. Consider Jonah. God told Jonah to go to Nineveh and tell the approximately 660,000 sinners there about Him or they would all die. Jonah, hating the Ninevites possibly more than any person prior to Hitler has ever hated a group of people, outright refused to obey. He boarded a ship bound for the farthest possible place from Nineveh, hoping that God's plan to save the Ninevites would be thus thwarted and theyw ould die. When God's storm threatened to sink the ship and the lot fell on Jonah as the cause, the sailors told Jonah to pray to his God for rescue, but Jonah knew that would mean having to go to Nineveh, so he told the sailors to throw him overboard and let him drown. Again, Jonah hoped to thwart God's plan, this time willing to die before he gave the Ninevites an opportunity to be saved. At this point, you have to at least acknowledge Jonah's commitment. God's commitment, however, is greater and he sends a great fish to swallow Jonah whole. Jonah does not get to die as he planned, because that was not part of the Plan. After three days of wallowing around inside a fish, Jonah finally decides to do as he is told, realizing there is no way he's going to get out of it. The fish spits Jonah onto the shore of Nineveh right on schedule. Jonah goes into Nineveh as the world's first hellfire-and-damnation preacher, telling the Ninevites that God is poised to destroy them all if they do not repent. Much to Jonah's chagrin, his angry message of inevitable doom was exactly why God chose him. The Plan accounted for it, even counted on it. By the time Jonah was finished in Nineveh, every single person in the city repented and sought God. At no point did Jonah ever let go of his hatred, but it had no effect on God's perfect plan, except that Jonah made his trip to Nineveh far more unpleasant than if he had just obeyed from the start. Jonah's story is my favorite example of how futile our efforts are to prevent or even change the Plan. God started your life at point A with a specific point B in mind for you. You WILL end up at point B. Free will simply allows you to choose which path from A to B you will take.
So, we have established that God has a perfect plan and that we cannot possibly screw it up even if we directly disobey God, but what does that have to do with those things I disagreed with before? Am I saying that God's plan does not include taking care of your family before everyone else or becoming strong enough to help others? Absolutely, but not at all. The reason people say those things to me is because I have a history of opening my home to anyone who asks, of giving anything that is asked of me to anyone who asks, of allowing my generosity to exceed my resources and knowingly allowing people to take advantage of me. I am accused of doing these things even when it works to the detriment of my family, specifically my wife and chidlren. I am told that I should not give what I cannot afford. They say I should worry about my family before others. In a sense, this is all true, but if you'll humor me, I will tell you why it's also not. It is because of the Plan. If I have faith in God, then I must also implicitly trust the Plan.
It is true that my resources are severely limited, mostly due to the fact that my wife and I have seven children. There is very little beyond absolute necessity that I can afford on my own. This is why some people believe that I am not in a position to help or give to others: I can barely cover my own expenses. The problem with that logic is that it completely falls apart in the face of faith and is directly and repeatedly contradicted by the Bible. You see, I serve a God of unlimited resources. That same God promised to provide for all my needs. I submit Matther 6:25-34:
25Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? 26Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? 27Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? 28And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: 29And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? 31Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? 32(For after all these things do the Gentiles seek
for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. 33But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. 34Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
See? Even when I cannot afford anything, I am guaranteed all that I will ever need if only I will seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness. How do I do that? Let us go back to Matthew 5:38-48:
38Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: 39But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. 40And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also. 41And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. 42Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away. 43Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. 44But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; 45That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. 46For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? 47And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? 48Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
Note that it does not say, "Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn thou not away as long as you can safely afford these things." Your charity will never exceed God's riches. You will never be able to give so much that God cannot compensate for it. He not only can, but promises he will. There is, therefore, no need to play it safe with generosity. We are instructed to give of ourselves and all we have with reckless abandon for the good of others and thus be living demonstrations of God's love, mercy and providence. This applies to every aspect of our lives and interactions with people. Each of us should be our own last priority, putting God first and his children second. Does that mean you should not take care of the needs of your family? Absolutely not. What you should do is trust that God has a perfect plan, will always keep his promises and has already promised to handle all your needs if you will seek his kingdom and his righteousness by obeying him. The question then becomes, "How do I obey him?" The answer is found in Matthew 22:36-40:
36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law? 37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
That may seem a bit vague, but the message is actually quite clear: if you always act in love, you will always be in compliance with God's law, seeking his kingdom and righteousness. So, when it comes to making decisions in your life, always choose love. God knew there would be some confusion among people as to what constitutes love and planned for that, too. He laid it out for us in detail in I Corinthians 13:
1Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. 2And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. 3And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. 4Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, 5Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; 6Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; 7Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. 8Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. 9For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. 10But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. 11When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 12For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. 13And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
So, charity, according to the Bible, is more valuable than hope or even faith. In fact, it is more valuable than anything else in life because charity is acting in love and "he that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love" (I John 4:8).
Now that it has been established that we can always afford charity because God will provide for us, another question comes to mind. Can we afford not to love? That depends on what you are willing to settle for in this life and the next. Love is the currency of the Christian, the only one that matters, and charity is how we invest it. Like any currency, if it is not invested, love will not grow, but continue to dwindle away until the heart is broke(n). Unlike other currencies, however, there are absolutely no risks involved with love investments. If you spend your love one someone, God will always reimburse you with interest. The same goes with all other resources made available to you. God would not have given us the instructions that he did if he were not willing and able to compensate for the costs incurred by those mandates. It is my belief, then, that the greatest method for increasing our available resources is to invest them in the good of others whenever and wherever possible, trusting that, even if we spread ourselves too thin to handle on our own, God will always make up the difference and continue to provide for our needs as well. Not only does God promise to meet out needs, he also wants to meet our wants. If you have ever asked God for something you wanted, but you did not get it and you wondered why, the answer is found in James 4:2-3:
2 Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. 3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.
God wants to give you what you want, but he wants you to want your wants for the right reasons. When you consume something, it is gone. When you invest something, it grows. Going back to love being our currency, if you ask for a gift from God, and he out of love gives it to you, then you consume it, it does not grow. It is wasted. If you want something from God, it should be because it will enhance your ability to invest love and spread charity. The more you give, the more God will give to you, so you can give that, too. That is how we magnify God, even when he is already so much bigger than we are.
All of these truths make it apparent to me that the only way to take care of my family and myself is to give even what I cannot afford, because I cannot afford not to give. God has, true to his word, always provided for my needs, even when I could not imagine how I would survive. Most frequently, he has used my family to accomplish this, but there have even been a few occasions where deposits of money just slightly in excess of what I needed were inexplicably deposited into my bank account without a trace of where they came from. God has a plan for me, which he promised would be great and for my good. Consider Romans 8:28-32:
28And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. 29For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. 31What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? 32He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
Let us now address the whole "you must be strong to help the weak" argument. That is absolutely true. The problem with that logic is that we are all equally weak, so if it is true, then none of us can help anyone, right? Wrong. II Corinthians 4:7-10 says:
7And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. 8Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. 9And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Well, look at that. As it turns out, we are strongest when we are at our weakest, because it is only then that we rely fully upon God's limitless strength. What better way for us to tap into that perfect strength than by weakening ourselves to the point of desperate dependence upon it and then rejoicing in our great ineptitude? I submit that there is no better way. How, then, should we thus weaken ourselves? Answer: by giving everything we have in love to others for their good, so that we are left with nothing but God's infinite grace and power, for what else could we possibly need? Take a look at the widow in Mark 12:41-44:
41 And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much. 42 And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing. 43 And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury: 44 For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living.
Here we see the true nature of giving. The actual amount is largely irrelevant compared to the percentage of what we have available. Certainly, most if not all of those rich people put in a higher numeric amount than the widow, but none of them put in as much as she did. Why? Because, according to her faith, she gave everything she had. She trusted God to provide for her needs and realized that someone, somewhere needed that farthing even more than her. By giving away every last bit that she had to survive on, the widow found a sense of peace and security that can only be gotten by relying solely upon God and trusting the Plan. Note that Jesus did not just see the widow do this thing and appreciate her faith quietly to himself. No, he made it a point to call out to his disciples and draw their attention to it. Jesus put that poverty-stricken widow in the spotlight and glorified her above everyone else in the room, all over a single farthing. Why would he do that? Answer: to show his disciples and, by extension, the world what true, perfect love and total faith look like. When that poor widow gave her last farthing, she fulfilled God's perfect plan to show the world how to give the right way.
There you have it. No matter what we do, no matter how terrible our mistake, no matter how crippling our weakness, no matter how small our everything is, we cannot lose as long as we love God and trust his Master Plan. If you will take a moment to look back on your life as a Christian, you will inevitably see that this has always been true. Even when we think we have lost, the truth is that we just have not seen that part of the Plan come to fruition yet. God's timing is not always aligned with our expectations, but that is because he is perfect and we are not. He knows everything and we do not. All we have to do is take God at his word. I assure you that, while God cannot be tempted, he does not mind being tested. Neither would you, if you knew it was impossible for you to fail and that your children would see your success and marvel at it and strive to love you better. So go on, test him. Test his faithfulness. Test his love. Test his providence. Test his mercy. Test his word, his promises. Throw your love around like the lottery jackpot winner you are and watch as God makes it grow. Just remember to do so as discreetly as possible. You would not want to cheat yourself out of a reward from God by getting your reward from the world. Jesus told people upon whom he performed miracles, more than once, to tell no one what had happened. Of course, they never listened, but the point was that Jesus gained recognition and admiration despite never seeking it. When you invest your love, never speak of it again. Let the loved be your witnesses. Their testimony is all you need to cause your love investment to grow and spread.
God is all-powerful and all-knowing, existing everywhere at all times because he is not bound by time and space which he created for our understanding of existence. God is perfect. Perfect is defined as being completely free from faults or defects, meaning such an entity would be incapable of making a mistake, being incorrect, or failing at anything. If God is perfect, then his Plan must also be perfect. If the Plan is perfect, then it must account for absolutely everything that could ever possibly happen in all of existence, without exception. If the plan accounts for everything, then it is impossible for us humans to mess it up. Consider Jonah. God told Jonah to go to Nineveh and tell the approximately 660,000 sinners there about Him or they would all die. Jonah, hating the Ninevites possibly more than any person prior to Hitler has ever hated a group of people, outright refused to obey. He boarded a ship bound for the farthest possible place from Nineveh, hoping that God's plan to save the Ninevites would be thus thwarted and theyw ould die. When God's storm threatened to sink the ship and the lot fell on Jonah as the cause, the sailors told Jonah to pray to his God for rescue, but Jonah knew that would mean having to go to Nineveh, so he told the sailors to throw him overboard and let him drown. Again, Jonah hoped to thwart God's plan, this time willing to die before he gave the Ninevites an opportunity to be saved. At this point, you have to at least acknowledge Jonah's commitment. God's commitment, however, is greater and he sends a great fish to swallow Jonah whole. Jonah does not get to die as he planned, because that was not part of the Plan. After three days of wallowing around inside a fish, Jonah finally decides to do as he is told, realizing there is no way he's going to get out of it. The fish spits Jonah onto the shore of Nineveh right on schedule. Jonah goes into Nineveh as the world's first hellfire-and-damnation preacher, telling the Ninevites that God is poised to destroy them all if they do not repent. Much to Jonah's chagrin, his angry message of inevitable doom was exactly why God chose him. The Plan accounted for it, even counted on it. By the time Jonah was finished in Nineveh, every single person in the city repented and sought God. At no point did Jonah ever let go of his hatred, but it had no effect on God's perfect plan, except that Jonah made his trip to Nineveh far more unpleasant than if he had just obeyed from the start. Jonah's story is my favorite example of how futile our efforts are to prevent or even change the Plan. God started your life at point A with a specific point B in mind for you. You WILL end up at point B. Free will simply allows you to choose which path from A to B you will take.
So, we have established that God has a perfect plan and that we cannot possibly screw it up even if we directly disobey God, but what does that have to do with those things I disagreed with before? Am I saying that God's plan does not include taking care of your family before everyone else or becoming strong enough to help others? Absolutely, but not at all. The reason people say those things to me is because I have a history of opening my home to anyone who asks, of giving anything that is asked of me to anyone who asks, of allowing my generosity to exceed my resources and knowingly allowing people to take advantage of me. I am accused of doing these things even when it works to the detriment of my family, specifically my wife and chidlren. I am told that I should not give what I cannot afford. They say I should worry about my family before others. In a sense, this is all true, but if you'll humor me, I will tell you why it's also not. It is because of the Plan. If I have faith in God, then I must also implicitly trust the Plan.
It is true that my resources are severely limited, mostly due to the fact that my wife and I have seven children. There is very little beyond absolute necessity that I can afford on my own. This is why some people believe that I am not in a position to help or give to others: I can barely cover my own expenses. The problem with that logic is that it completely falls apart in the face of faith and is directly and repeatedly contradicted by the Bible. You see, I serve a God of unlimited resources. That same God promised to provide for all my needs. I submit Matther 6:25-34:
25Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? 26Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? 27Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? 28And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: 29And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? 31Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? 32(For after all these things do the Gentiles seek
for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. 33But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. 34Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.See? Even when I cannot afford anything, I am guaranteed all that I will ever need if only I will seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness. How do I do that? Let us go back to Matthew 5:38-48:
38Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: 39But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. 40And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also. 41And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. 42Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away. 43Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. 44But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; 45That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. 46For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? 47And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? 48Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
Note that it does not say, "Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn thou not away as long as you can safely afford these things." Your charity will never exceed God's riches. You will never be able to give so much that God cannot compensate for it. He not only can, but promises he will. There is, therefore, no need to play it safe with generosity. We are instructed to give of ourselves and all we have with reckless abandon for the good of others and thus be living demonstrations of God's love, mercy and providence. This applies to every aspect of our lives and interactions with people. Each of us should be our own last priority, putting God first and his children second. Does that mean you should not take care of the needs of your family? Absolutely not. What you should do is trust that God has a perfect plan, will always keep his promises and has already promised to handle all your needs if you will seek his kingdom and his righteousness by obeying him. The question then becomes, "How do I obey him?" The answer is found in Matthew 22:36-40:
36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law? 37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
That may seem a bit vague, but the message is actually quite clear: if you always act in love, you will always be in compliance with God's law, seeking his kingdom and righteousness. So, when it comes to making decisions in your life, always choose love. God knew there would be some confusion among people as to what constitutes love and planned for that, too. He laid it out for us in detail in I Corinthians 13:
1Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. 2And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. 3And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. 4Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, 5Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; 6Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; 7Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. 8Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. 9For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. 10But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. 11When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 12For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. 13And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
So, charity, according to the Bible, is more valuable than hope or even faith. In fact, it is more valuable than anything else in life because charity is acting in love and "he that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love" (I John 4:8).
Now that it has been established that we can always afford charity because God will provide for us, another question comes to mind. Can we afford not to love? That depends on what you are willing to settle for in this life and the next. Love is the currency of the Christian, the only one that matters, and charity is how we invest it. Like any currency, if it is not invested, love will not grow, but continue to dwindle away until the heart is broke(n). Unlike other currencies, however, there are absolutely no risks involved with love investments. If you spend your love one someone, God will always reimburse you with interest. The same goes with all other resources made available to you. God would not have given us the instructions that he did if he were not willing and able to compensate for the costs incurred by those mandates. It is my belief, then, that the greatest method for increasing our available resources is to invest them in the good of others whenever and wherever possible, trusting that, even if we spread ourselves too thin to handle on our own, God will always make up the difference and continue to provide for our needs as well. Not only does God promise to meet out needs, he also wants to meet our wants. If you have ever asked God for something you wanted, but you did not get it and you wondered why, the answer is found in James 4:2-3:
2 Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. 3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.
God wants to give you what you want, but he wants you to want your wants for the right reasons. When you consume something, it is gone. When you invest something, it grows. Going back to love being our currency, if you ask for a gift from God, and he out of love gives it to you, then you consume it, it does not grow. It is wasted. If you want something from God, it should be because it will enhance your ability to invest love and spread charity. The more you give, the more God will give to you, so you can give that, too. That is how we magnify God, even when he is already so much bigger than we are.
All of these truths make it apparent to me that the only way to take care of my family and myself is to give even what I cannot afford, because I cannot afford not to give. God has, true to his word, always provided for my needs, even when I could not imagine how I would survive. Most frequently, he has used my family to accomplish this, but there have even been a few occasions where deposits of money just slightly in excess of what I needed were inexplicably deposited into my bank account without a trace of where they came from. God has a plan for me, which he promised would be great and for my good. Consider Romans 8:28-32:
28And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. 29For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. 31What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? 32He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
Let us now address the whole "you must be strong to help the weak" argument. That is absolutely true. The problem with that logic is that we are all equally weak, so if it is true, then none of us can help anyone, right? Wrong. II Corinthians 4:7-10 says:
7And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. 8Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. 9And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Well, look at that. As it turns out, we are strongest when we are at our weakest, because it is only then that we rely fully upon God's limitless strength. What better way for us to tap into that perfect strength than by weakening ourselves to the point of desperate dependence upon it and then rejoicing in our great ineptitude? I submit that there is no better way. How, then, should we thus weaken ourselves? Answer: by giving everything we have in love to others for their good, so that we are left with nothing but God's infinite grace and power, for what else could we possibly need? Take a look at the widow in Mark 12:41-44:
41 And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much. 42 And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing. 43 And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury: 44 For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living.
Here we see the true nature of giving. The actual amount is largely irrelevant compared to the percentage of what we have available. Certainly, most if not all of those rich people put in a higher numeric amount than the widow, but none of them put in as much as she did. Why? Because, according to her faith, she gave everything she had. She trusted God to provide for her needs and realized that someone, somewhere needed that farthing even more than her. By giving away every last bit that she had to survive on, the widow found a sense of peace and security that can only be gotten by relying solely upon God and trusting the Plan. Note that Jesus did not just see the widow do this thing and appreciate her faith quietly to himself. No, he made it a point to call out to his disciples and draw their attention to it. Jesus put that poverty-stricken widow in the spotlight and glorified her above everyone else in the room, all over a single farthing. Why would he do that? Answer: to show his disciples and, by extension, the world what true, perfect love and total faith look like. When that poor widow gave her last farthing, she fulfilled God's perfect plan to show the world how to give the right way.
There you have it. No matter what we do, no matter how terrible our mistake, no matter how crippling our weakness, no matter how small our everything is, we cannot lose as long as we love God and trust his Master Plan. If you will take a moment to look back on your life as a Christian, you will inevitably see that this has always been true. Even when we think we have lost, the truth is that we just have not seen that part of the Plan come to fruition yet. God's timing is not always aligned with our expectations, but that is because he is perfect and we are not. He knows everything and we do not. All we have to do is take God at his word. I assure you that, while God cannot be tempted, he does not mind being tested. Neither would you, if you knew it was impossible for you to fail and that your children would see your success and marvel at it and strive to love you better. So go on, test him. Test his faithfulness. Test his love. Test his providence. Test his mercy. Test his word, his promises. Throw your love around like the lottery jackpot winner you are and watch as God makes it grow. Just remember to do so as discreetly as possible. You would not want to cheat yourself out of a reward from God by getting your reward from the world. Jesus told people upon whom he performed miracles, more than once, to tell no one what had happened. Of course, they never listened, but the point was that Jesus gained recognition and admiration despite never seeking it. When you invest your love, never speak of it again. Let the loved be your witnesses. Their testimony is all you need to cause your love investment to grow and spread.
