Giving

Good morning, God is good. I am sorry about yesterday, but as I posted on Facebook, I was actually getting up off the couch to move to the computer to post the devotion, and somehow I moved wrong. I felt a pull, and a pop in my back, and that was it, I was useless the rest of the day. It still hurts this morning but I am here, praise God.
This morning I want to start in Lk 12:16-21, where we see the parable of the rich fool. If you remember the story, Jesus said this man's farm was blessed and brought forth plentifully. So he being greedy, decided to tear down his barns, and build bigger barns, so that he could store the excess. This way he could be rich for years to come. However, instead God in vs 20 said to him, "Thou fool this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be". PS. 62:10 says "...if riches increase set not your heart upon them". You see, there is nothing wrong with having earthly riches, as long as we keep our hearts on God, and not on those earthly riches. I know a lot of people that are what I consider "rich", however, even though they enjoy the finer things in life, a nice house, a Cadillac, cruises and such, they remember where those blessings come from. They are faithful to give above and beyond their tithes, they are quick to offer financial support to the church, and it's members. There was one Sunday morning before church, I saw a particular man, pick up my Bible and place something inside, then walk away innocently. So I purposely waited to open my Bible until the preaching started. I pulled out an envelope, and stuck it in my pocket. I knew how the man was, I knew he was always doing something to help others, but he did not ever want anyone to know that he was responsible. After I got in the car, I opened the envelope, and there was $200 inside. This man knew that I was not able to work at that moment, he knew we were facing financial problems, and he wanted to help. He had the money, so he helped. But, he did not receive any kind of praise, he did not want to be exalted for doing what God commands us to do. His treasure is in heaven, and not on earth.
Luke 6:30 says "give to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again". There is a story of a missionary who was translating the Bible into the language of the people of an African country. When he got to this passage, he was afraid to translate this verse because these people would always take everything literately, instead of spiritually. But, he obeyed God, and translated it anyway, and just as he expected the natives, looked at all the stuff he had that they had never seen, and one by one they began to ask him for things. He felt he had no choice but to give them what they asked for. Soon he had nothing, and they had everything. It did not take long, until the natives began to talk amongst themselves, and they all agreed that surely this was a man of God, as they had never seen anyone so selfless. They then began to feel guilty for taking all of his prized belongings. So the next morning, the missionary woke up to the entire village waiting at the door to his tent, bringing back everything they had taken from him. They all also wanted to know how to have what he had, the entire village was converted because of this one selfless act. His treasure was in heaven, and not on earth. He did not want to depart with some of his prized possessions, but he did so for the LORD, and was rewarded abundantly.
We are not only told to be giving, and selfless, but we are also told to be discerning. There are so many people out there that will take advantage of our goodness, and we must discern the difference between a real need and a scam, in order to be good stewards. Even, so if we are saved, our treasure should be in heaven. The widow had enough for one meal for her and her son, and yet she fed the man of God first, and was blessed. Elijah was able to take a small cruise of oil and get enough out of it, to fill hundreds, if not thousands of vessels, all because someone was willing to share.
I believe you all know this story, but several years ago, at a time when we were not able to buy groceries and pay our bills, God sent a young man to us that needed a place to live. I did not hesitate to make him move in, I knew the boy and knew that he was a good Christian man that could not live at home with his parents that were drunks, and were always fighting. So with it 20degrees at night he was sleeping in a camper trailer with no heat. Now we have another mouth to feed, and boy could he eat. The next morning I thought about it, and almost got worried, after all I could not make our money go far enough as it was, how could I stretch it any farther. Two days later, Dawn got paid, and I went and bought enough groceries, and then went and paid all the bills, and had money left over. And it was that way the entire time he lived with us. I was faithful to share what God blessed us with, (even if at the time we didn't think we were being blessed), and He blessed our faithfulness. But, I must also mention, that this boy was living with another friend of his. I originally told this boy to stay with us also, but after a couple of weeks I realized that this boy was in the position he was in, because of his own actions. Or, maybe I should say in-actions. You see he was lazy, and wanted to depend on others to take care of him. He wanted to run around and get in trouble, and have fun and live off others. I talked to him about this, and gave him another chance. When he pretended to change, even though he was refusing to change, I told him he had to find somewhere else to live. I was discerning about the boys. Over the years, I helped many people, and refused to help others because I knew they did not want to help themselves.
God gives us the opportunities to serve Him, are we watching for those opportunities so we can serve Him.