A young woman suffering from a rare form of Muscular Dystrophy recently made headlines after raising donations for her medical expenses. When her fundraising efforts became public, she surpassed her goal and collected a total of $18,000. Of those donations was one for $5,000 by an anonymous donor. This story is definitely a breath of fresh air among the chaos we are currently seeing in mainstream media. It’s a reminder that generosity still has not died, though it is lacking. Our country has become lost in sin. We’ve become lovers of ourselves, motivated by selfish desires, and extremely prideful. We walk by homeless people and pass judgment as opposed to helping them. When people ask for help on social media, we look down on them and ask what they did to end up in a predicament, to begin with. It’s easy to get lost in the common ways of the world, but the bible tells us in many verses we should help the poor, or less fortunate.
One of my personal favorite books in the Bible is the book of Proverbs. There are so many insightful verses in this book! Of those verses is Proverbs 19:17 which states, “Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed.”. Here, the bible tells us that by lending to the poor, we are doing his work. It also says He will “repay” us. Though it might not be monetary value, it could very well be a spiritual blessing. Giving to the poor is also talked about in Acts 20:35. This verse reads “In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” (ESV). I think this verse is pretty straightforward. As Christians, we are called to help the weak. While we may automatically think of financial weakness, I believe it is also referring to those with physical limitations. The second part of the verse I’m sure we’ve all heard before. The verse holds truth too. Who would want to follow a religion whose followers were stingy? I know I wouldn’t! While we should jump at the chance to help others in need, the bible does give us some guidelines for our generosity.
The creation of social media has been a great tool for Christians. It helps us get the word out to the entire world and literally make disciples of all the nations (Matthew 28:19-20). This doesn’t go without drawbacks, though. With social media, it’s easy to get wrapped up in ourselves with pride and boasting. We may record ourselves giving money to the homeless or doing another good deed in order to boast about how “good” we are, but we lie and say the reasoning behind recording was to inspire others to do the same. The once Godly act has not only disintegrated but also has become sinful by you not being truthful. The bible warns us against this kind of behavior in Matthew 6:1-4.
In this verse, Jesus says (ESV) “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” This verse makes it very clear that we should do these kinds of deeds in secret. By doing so, we are giving glory to God and not ourselves. In 2 Corinthians 9:7 (Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.), it tells us that we should give with joy. As the verse states, if we give in a reluctant, compulsive way, the donation does not reap any rewards. Even then so, if we are not doing it out of joy, why are we doing it, to begin with? It goes back to not being boastful about our generosity. The final part I want to touch on can be found in Mark 14:41-44. Here, Jesus is sitting near the treasury watching people put money into the offering box. When he notices a poor widow drop in two small copper coins, he calls his disciples to him and explains how she has given more than others because “out of her poverty [she] has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.” What can we take away from this? The more we have, the more we should give. After all, we cannot serve two masters. We will either love money and hate God or hate money and love God (Matthew 6:24).
Our generosity, though, is no match for the generous gift Jesus gave us. He was an innocent man, who did no wrong but still chose to die on the cross for us. He gave his life for everyone, including those who mocked him. I can’t think of a better example of unwavering generosity. We should certainly strive to be generous people to the best of our ability. By doing so, people may be more apt to want to learn more about our religion, thus creating potential discipleship. It’s time we set aside judgments and hate and help others in need. Our world may be going downhill, but that doesn’t mean we can’t at least try to make this world a better place.
Source: Christine Stanwood (7/5/2022) Valley woman receives generous donations for rare diagnosis after ABC15 report, ABC15 Arizona. https://www.abc15.com/news/uplifting-arizona/valley-woman-receives-generous-donations-for-rare-diagnosis-after-abc15-report
Tattooed Faith 