Check this out:
One who is gracious to a poor man lends to Yahweh, & He will repay him for his good deed.
- Proverbs 19:17
When I read this, I always think of
Jesus’ description of Judgment Day in Matthew 25, when the Judge says, “When
you did it to the least of these, you did it for me.” Giving to the poor is giving to God. Caring for the poor is worship, love, praise
and glory.
But this morning I saw something
different. We loan money to get back
interest, right? We invest in something
so we can get a return on our investment, and we want to invest in something
that’s not too risky, and has the potential for a high rate of return. Normally those two things are proportional:
the greater risk, the greater possible reward.
But in this case, we give to the poor, but really we’re investing in
God. What has less risk than God? What has a higher potential return?
My wife and I agreed some years back to
be extremely frugal and save for our semi-retirement so we could spend the last
years of our lives in self-supported ministry.
That has turned out to have been risky and foolish. We expected things to go differently than
they have. I wish now we’d have invested
based on this truth from Solomon.
The question is ... will you walk by faith or sight?
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