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Giving What You’ve Got, March 29
The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be
watered also himself.
Proverbs 11:25
.
Liberality is one of the directions of the Holy Spirit, and when the pro-
fessed people of God withhold from the Lord His own in tithes and offerings,
they meet with spiritual loss. The Lord does not reward a stinted liberality.
He calls upon the people to honor Him with their substance, and with the
first-fruits of all their increase.
It is not possible to lay down rules for every case; for in many instances
such a course would distress the giver. The circumstances in which some
are placed, and which are of God’s appointment, are to be considered. The
Lord expects a man to impart of what he has and not of what he has not. With
some a tenth of the income would not properly represent the proportion they
should give to the Lord, while to others it is a fair return.
How many are losing rich blessings and becoming spiritually dwarfed
because they withhold from God His own. The enemy of God and man is
constantly at work to divert the treasures which belong to God and to please
and honor and glorify the human agent. My family needs call for this and
for that, men say, and convenience after convenience is added to the house
in furniture, in clothing, in dainties for the table. They fail to limit their
desires, when by so doing they would bring blessing to themselves and to
their families.
God has made us His almoners, copartners with Him in the great work
of advancing His kingdom on the earth. We may pursue the course taken
by the unfaithful steward, and by so doing lose the most precious privileges
ever granted to men. For thousands of years God has worked through human
agencies, but at His will He can drop out the selfish, the money lover, the
covetous. He can carry on His work though we act no part in it. But who
among us would be pleased to have the Lord do this? ...
The Lord reads every thought of the heart, every impulse of the mind. If
we have not the spirit to give freely, we mock Him.
When we show to the world, to angels, and to men that the prosperity of
the cause of God is our first consideration, God will bless us.—
Manuscript
47, March 29, 1899
, “God Loveth a Cheerful Giver.”
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