Are We Too Rich To Give?
I Timothy 6:17
Preached By Pastor Tony Miano
Pico Canyon Community Church
February 11, 2001
Introduction: Now that we’ve finished chapter one of the Book of James, we’re going to take a break from our study of that great letter. For the next three weeks we’re going to try to answer the question, “How can we give without regret?”
We’ll answer that question by asking ourselves three other questions. Don’t you love it when someone answers a question with a question? We’ll consider how we can give without regret by asking ourselves, “Are we too rich to give?” “Are we ready to give?” And, “Are we giving for the future?”
We’re going to spend the next three weeks looking at three verses at the end of Paul’s first letter to Timothy, Paul’s envoy to the elders of the church in Ephesus. We will look at several different passages in our study, but these verses in First Timothy will serve as the anchor of our study. In First Timothy 6:17-19 we read, “Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed.”
This week, as we try to answer the question, “are we too rich to give,” we’ll consider our attitudes toward giving. Next week we’ll check to see if we’re ready to give by considering our aptitude for giving. Finally, in our third week of the study, we’ll look to the future as we consider the altitude of the treasures we seek.
Seeing that our church is young and I’ve never done a series on stewardship, I thought it wise to ask some pastors with a little more time under their belt what they thought about doing a series such as the one we’re going to begin. Without exception, each of the pastors shared the merits and benefits about teaching what the Bible says about giving.
The next thing each pastor said was how difficult it is to put together such a series without conveying mixed messages to their congregations. Considering the climate in which we live, and the several black eyes the Christian community has received over the years, by charlatans and snake oil salesman who have but one message, “give a lot to me and maybe God will give a lot to you,” you can see why pastors have a difficult time broaching the subject.
Over the next three weeks, I hope you will find our study to be helpful to your spiritual growth, the health of you family, and the health of our church. Now, I hope you’re not expecting our study to be a pep rally, fundraiser, or telethon. There are a number of television preachers who can fulfill that expectation. No, we’re going to set our sights much higher than that.
My goal is that by the time we are finished, we will all see giving—and not just financial giving, but also the giving of our time and talents—as an act of worship. I want us to see giving as an act of worship that is not dependent upon our present financial situation, but dependent upon our spiritual maturity. I want us to see giving not as a religious habit, not as one of life’s necessary evils, but as yet another way to show the Lord that we are His.
Who is rich?
Before we can answer the question of the day, “are we too rich to give,” we need to define what a rich person looks like. My guess is that none of you consider yourself to be rich in a worldly sense. My guess is that most of you consider yourself to be middle class and you may have already answered today’s question in your own mind. Maybe some of you have already determined that there is no way you are too rich to give and think the whole idea is an oxymoron. “How can I be too rich to give?” Maybe some of you think you’re not rich enough to give.
Paul begins verse 17 by telling Timothy to “instruct those who are rich in this present world.” When we think of the word “rich,” we probably think of some of the following people.
Bill Gates Microsoft $63,000,000,000
Lawrence Ellison Oracle $58,000,000,000
Paul Allen Microsoft $36,000,000,000
Warren Buffet Stocks $28,000,000,000
Ted Turner TBS $ 9,100,000,000
(Source: Forbes Magazine)
Now, I know you are all heartened by the fact that Ted Turner is only ranked 25th in Forbes Magazine’s report on the 400 richest Americans. I know we are all hoping that things will turn around for him and he will be able to dig himself out of the financial hole he is in. After all, how far can nine billion dollars go these days?
When we think of those who are rich in a worldly and financial sense, most of us probably don’t put our own names at the top of the list. More often than not, we probably think of the rich as “those other people”—not ourselves. What if I were to tell you that most of you in this room today are rich? I’ll let you stew on that for a minute.
Here are some annual household incomes for other parts of the world.
Tajikistan $990
Nigeria $960
Cambodia $700
Ethiopia $560
Sierra Leone $530
(Source: InfoPlease.com, 1998)
Now, you might be thinking, “That’s fascinating, Tony. But neither of the groups you’ve shown us is anywhere close to where I am financially. They are the extremes.” Okay. I’ll give you that. Let’s look at one more group that’s a little closer to home. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has given the following U.S. annual income poverty levels for the year 2000.
Independent, Single Adult $ 8,416.40
Married Couple 11,339.80
Family of Three 14,263.20
Family of Four 17,186.60
Family of Five 20,110.00
What if I were to tell you that even people in the most depressed economic conditions, people who fall into the categories I just mentioned, could be considered rich. Now, you’re probably thinking, “Okay, Tony. We get it. You’re talking about people who are spiritually rich.” Although there are those who are spiritually rich and those who are economically rich, I’m still talking about only those who are rich in a worldly sense, those who are rich in possessions.
A Definition of “Rich”
All right. I’ve played with you long enough. I’m going to give you a definition of rich that may cause you to begin to think about wealth in a different way. I wish I could take credit for coming up with this definition, but I can’t.
The definition comes from John MacArthur. In his commentary on I Timothy 6:17, he defines the rich this way. “Those who are rich are not just those with the most expensive homes and the most expensive lands. To be rich is to have more than the mere essentials of food, clothing, and shelter. In today’s terminology, it means to have discretionary dollars” (MacArthur, p. 280).
Discretionary dollars would be any amount of money you have above the basic necessities—food, clothing, and shelter. Now, before you balk at this concept, we need to keep in mind that many of the things we consider to be necessities are only necessities to those living in the western world—at least most of the western world.
For example, if you lived in Spain and owned a clothes dryer, you would be in the top five percent of the homes in that country. Or, if you lived in Italy and owned a microwave oven, you would be in the top six percent of the homes in that country. How many of you have a dishwasher? Well, congratulations. If you lived in the Netherlands, you would be in the top eleven percent of the homes in that country. And these are all industrialized nations.
These statistics would be meaningless if you lived in most third-world countries because you wouldn’t have the electricity to run the appliances I just mentioned. You couldn’t drive to the other side of town where your rich friend has electricity because you wouldn’t own a car either. Well, maybe you could call someone for help. Wait a minute. The phone takes electricity, too, so that wouldn’t work.
I hope your definition of a rich person is beginning to change. I hope you are beginning to see that regardless of where you may fall on a chart or a graph, you may still be a rich person. I know that may not be easy for all of you to accept. I know that as I looked at some of these statistics and saw where my own family fell on the charts, I didn’t immediately rub my hands together in victory and say, “Oh, Boy! I’m rich!” Stay with me on this. I’m actually leading you somewhere and it’s not just a series of rabbit trails.
Paul refers to those who are rich in the present age. The “present age” is more literally translated from the original Greek as “the now age.” Paul gives Timothy the command to instruct those who are rich in the present tense. That means that Timothy was to regularly and continually remind those in the church who were rich, rich in the here and now, about certain attitudes regarding their riches. The beauty and practicality of God’s Word is that teaching for the church 2,000 years ago is equally applicable to the church today.
The instruction Paul commands Timothy to present to the church, the instruction we find in verse seventeen, centers on the attitude of the people about riches. In order to give without regret, we need to make sure that our attitudes about riches are consistent with God’s Word. We also need to be mindful of how our attitudes about riches affects our attitudes toward our fellow man, our attitude toward money itself, and our attitude toward the Master. We’ll start by doing a heart check about our attitudes toward our fellow man.
Our Attitude Toward Our Fellow Man
Paul says that those who are rich, those who have food, clothing, shelter, and still have money left over, are “not to be conceited.” The word “conceited” comes from a Greek word that is actually a combination of two words, the adjective “high or lofty,” and the verb “to think.”
In other words, those who are conceited, in Paul’s estimation, are high-minded or haughty. They think very highly of themselves and their social status because of their wealth. Paul uses similar wording in his letter to the Romans. In Romans 12 (probably the greatest chapter in the New Testament dealing with Christian service), verse 16, we read, “Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation.”
The inevitable flipside to that high-mindedness is that those with such an attitude look down on others because they lack the same social status. In his instruction to the Romans, Paul is not saying that we shouldn’t associate with those who are wealthy. He is saying that we should make sure that we don’t ignore those who aren’t wealthy. James really drives this point home in chapter two of his letter, which we’ll be studying in a few weeks.
Likewise, Paul is not saying that we should associate with the poor because they are more important than the wealthy. The poor are simply in need of more than those who are wealthy. When I use the word “poor,” I use it in the same sense that Paul uses the word “lowly.”
Paul uses a graphic word to make an important point. The word carries with it the picture of a person in dirty clothes, a person who lacks the bare necessities of life. When we think of the poor, Paul wants us to think outside of our comfort zones.
He doesn’t want us to think about the poor people we can tolerate; those we might allow into our homes or our freshly detailed cars; those we might give a smile to as we pass them on a narrow sidewalk. He wants us to think about those who make us cringe at the thought of letting their filthy clothes touch our furniture. He wants us to think of those that we not only won’t smile at on the street, but that we’ll go out of our way to cross the street early so we can avoid having even any remote contact with them.
Not only does Paul want us to consider such people, he wants us to associate with them. The word “associate” comes from the Greek word that means, “to lead away with or together” (Abbott-Smith, p. 425). As I explain the definition of biblical “association,” I hope it shakes you up a bit. I hope it challenges what you may have thought in the past about how close you should get to the poor.
To associate with the lowly, those of the most extreme humble means, is not just giving a buck to a homeless person and hurrying on your way, feeling pretty cocky about your charity. It’s not the occasional donation to Goodwill, counting on someone else to deliver the goods.
Associating with the poor involves you, taking the poor person by the hand, and leading them away from their low position, if even for a brief time, and enjoying fellowship with them. And it’s not a one-time thing. Now, certainly there are times when you may come across a person who, after the contact, you may never see again. And if you’re obedient, those divine, one-time appointments can be incredible gifts from God. But for those people whom you know are poor, people you are sure to see from time to time, God’s Word calls us to associate with them again and again.
It’s sad that we in the body of Christ need to be reminded of this, but we do--especially in the American church. There are no class distinctions in the body of Christ. Whether you are rich or poor, there should be no distinction. Whether you own a home or rent the smallest place in town, there should be no distinction. Whether you drive nice cars or drive a car like one of ours, which I affectionately refer to as the beast, there should be no distinction. Whether you have the latest in designer fashions or are hoping the winter clothes will last one more season, there should be no distinction. There is but one class in the body of Christ. If you know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you are co-equals in Christ with every other believer in the church.
If you think otherwise, then you contradict the clear teaching of God’s Word. If you think otherwise, then, as Paul so aptly wrote, then you are wise only “in your own estimation.” If you think otherwise, then you may be too rich to give, regardless of the limit or extent, the lack or expanse, of your financial condition.
So, how can we improve our attitudes toward others? Beyond seeking the Lord’s guidance through prayer, which all of us should do daily, I can only think of one method that will work. In fact, we’re going to talk about this in greater detail next week. But I don’t want you to put something off to next week if there is something you should be doing today.
If your attitude toward others who fall into different social-economic categories than you needs improvement, then you must spend time with those who are different than you. The only way you are going to see people for who they really are instead of what they have is by spending time with them.
We all need to be people who are able to discern between the comfort zones we create for ourselves and how far reaching God expects those zones to be. Now there are those who will try to teach you that what God wants for you more than anything else is for you to be comfortable.
What I see in Scripture is this. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this; You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:30-31). We are called to love our neighbors—not our rich neighbors, and not just our poor neighbors—but all of our neighbors. You can’t do that by keeping them at arms length. Don’t let your riches or lack thereof be what determines who you will befriend, who you will love, or who you will care for.
Our Attitude toward Money
Are you too rich to give? Having looked at our attitude toward other people, let’s check our attitudes toward money itself. Paul follows up his instruction not to be conceited by telling those who are rich not “to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches.”
We’ve all heard the adage; “You can’t take it with you.” When it comes to our finances, I’m sure most, if not all, of us will agree that the wealth we possess here on earth will not follow us into eternity. But consider this. When do we use this time-honored phrase with the most confidence? I can think of two phases of life when we utter the phrase with confidence and two phases of life when we don’t.
We tell our friends and families that “we can’t take it with us,” with the firmest belief that the words are true, when we don’t have anything and we have no hope of receiving it. We also make the phrase our motto when we feel that we have everything we need and we see no prospect of losing it. Think about it. If we are all honest with ourselves, there are times when we claim not to fix our hope on the riches of the world because, at that time in our life, we fall into either the category of the “haves” or the have-nots.” It’s pretty easy to boast of this confidence when it seems that there is nothing to gain or nothing to lose.
It’s also true that there are times in life when we utter the phrase, “you can’t take it with you,” and may not necessarily believe it to be true. We may say with our mouths or believe in our minds that the statement is true, but our actions say otherwise.
When might that happen? How about when you are struggling to obtain the wealth you desire or think you deserve, or when you are desperately trying to hang on to the wealth you’ve achieved. When you’re chasing a dream it is sometimes difficult to see reality--the reality that “you can’t take it with you.”
There are times in our lives when our attitude about money, about wealth, whether we are trying to get it or keep it, makes us too rich to have the capacity to give. It’s during these times, during the uncertain phases of life that I just described, when we can fix our hope on what Paul describes as “the uncertainty of riches.”
You might think that this attitude of placing our hope in the riches of the world would strictly pertain to those outside the church. Sadly, it doesn’t. We’ve all heard of the scandals of years past where televangelists bilked unsuspecting people of their savings. The victims of these scams, however, are equally guilty for their own demise. You see—they bought into the notion that their financial status coincided with their faith status. They fixed their hope on the riches of this world while they tried to convince themselves that they were fixing their hope on Christ.
Although we haven’t read these kinds of stories lately in the headlines, the game is still being played. Today it’s called the “prosperity doctrine,” or “health, wealth, and prosperity teaching.” Millions of people are being duped by colorful, articulate speakers into believing that if you lack financial wealth, it is because you lack faith.
I remember hearing a preacher on the radio many years ago say, “If you pray for a Rolls Royce and settle for a Volkswagen, you’re stupid!” What is sadder than the statement itself is that this man’s church is one of the largest in the greater Los Angeles area and there are people who actual believe that the Bible teaches this nonsense.
We can be too rich to give when we trust in our riches to provide for our needs. You will be less likely to give away that which you believe you can’t do without. If we are truly students of the Word, then we need to take heed to what the Word says.
In Proverbs 11:28, the first half of the verse says, “He who trusts in his riches will fall.” And in Proverbs 23:4-5 we read, “Do not weary yourself to gain wealth, cease from your consideration of it. When you set your eyes on it, it is gone. For wealth certainly makes itself wings like an eagle that flies toward the heavens.”
Many people believe that it is more difficult for the poor to give, whether it is to the church or to their neighbor, than it is for the rich. That simply isn’t true. It seems that the richer people become, the more desperate they are to hang on to what they have. Jesus drove this point home with his disciples in a very interesting scene we find in Mark 12. I found it interesting that what we’re about to read was the very last thing Jesus did in His public ministry.
In verses 41-44 we read, “And He sat down opposite the treasury, and began observing how the people were putting money into the treasury; and many rich people were putting in large sums. A poor widow came and put two small copper coins, which amount to a cent. Calling His disciples to Him, He said to them, ‘Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the contributors to the treasury; for they all put in out of their surplus, but she out of her poverty, put in all she owned, all she had to live on.’”
The scene is this. Jesus had just finished his final rebuke of the religious leaders of the Jewish community. We find Jesus sitting on a bench in an area of the Jewish Temple known as the “Court of Women.” The “Court of Women” was located immediately inside the East or “Great” Gate. The gate got its name because of its size and ornamentation. The gate was approximately 75’ high and 60’ wide. It was made of the finest Corinthian brass and studded with other precious metals and stones.
Although the court was called the “Court of Women,” was open to men and women alike, and this is where one would find the temple treasury. The treasury was a row of thirteen trumpet-shaped boxes where the people put their tithes and offerings. Jesus sat on a bench, relaxing after another long debate with the intellectually rich, but spiritually poor.
I want you to see something I think is important about the text that might easily be overlooked. Verse 41 tells us that Jesus was “observing how the people were putting money into the treasury.” Jesus wasn’t as concerned with what the people were doing as much as He was with how they were doing it. Jesus, as only God can, was discerning the heart of those who were giving. He was looking beyond the amount of the gift to the motive of the giver.
Verse 41 also tells us, “Many rich were putting in large sums.” But the Lord, beyond the tinker of the gold and bronze and copper coins hitting the bottoms of the trumpet-shaped boxes; beyond the public piety of those who gave impressive amounts of personal wealth, while waiting to make sure that others saw how much they dumped into the treasury, the Lord was concerned with but one thing. Were the people giving sacrificially or superficially? How do we know this?
“A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which amount to a cent” (v. 42). In his narrative of this story, Mark makes a contrast between the rich and the poor. He isn’t making a distinction between classes like that between nobles and peasants. He is emphasizing the disparity between the very wealthy and the destitute.
The woman quietly and humbly walked to one of the treasury boxes, amidst the personal pomp of the well to do, and dropped in two small copper coins. The coins were equivalent to about 2/5 of one U.S. penny, and would have amounted to, back then, the wages for about ten to fifteen minutes of work.
Now, keep in mind that this woman was a widow. We need not assume that she was an old woman because in her culture, her age would have made no difference. Just prior to the scene we’re looking at, Jesus rebuked the religious leaders for being men “who devour widows’ houses” (v. 40a). Widows were not well taken care of in the community, during Jesus’ time on earth. They certainly weren’t counted among the working class. Scripture doesn’t tell us how she scraped together enough money to survive from day to day. All we do know is that she was counted among the poorest of people in the community.
What Jesus saw in this woman and in what she did spurred him to gather his disciples together for an important lesson, one we all need to hear. Jesus tells his disciples something that probably had them scratching their heads at first. “This poor widow put in more than all the contributors to the treasury” (v. 43b). Without missing a beat or waiting for a peculiar response from one or more of the disciples, Jesus explains his statement. “For they all put in out of their surplus, but she, out of her poverty, put in all she owned, all she had to live on” (v. 44).
The difference between this poor woman and all of the wealthy people who gave was that the woman gave sacrificially. She put in not only all she owned, but all she had to live on. The others—well, they gave whatever they had left over that day. The word translated as “surplus” in the NASB is more literally translated as “abundance.” They gave superficially. They only gave a lot because they had a lot.
How many times have you prayed, “Lord, all that I have is yours?” I know I have prayed that prayer before. William MacDonald wrote this about the widow’s action. “Amazing how we can approve the widow’s action and agree with the Savior’s verdict without imitating her example! If we really believed what we say we believe, we would do exactly what she did. Her gift expressed her conviction that all belonged to the Lord, that He was worthy of all, that He must have all” (MacDonald, p. 1354).
Now certainly, just as we do today, the people in Jesus’ time had to pay taxes and pay off debt. But the people who came to the temple were not there to pay taxes. They were not there to pay mortgages, or rent, or credit card bills. They were giving to the Lord. But as is the case with many Christians today, they would say that all they had was the Lord’s, yet they only gave according to their surplus, their abundance, and their leftovers.
The poor widow in the story was not one to fix her hope on the uncertainty of riches. She fixed her hope on God. She may have been poor in the world’s eyes, but she was rich in the Lord’s eyes. She was rich because she had made a commitment to honor the Lord with everything she had. “General William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, was asked the secret of his amazing Christian life. Booth answered, ‘I told the Lord that he could have all that there is of William Booth’"(James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited, Wheaton: Tyndale, 1988, p. 98).
Are we truly giving all that there is of us to the Lord, or do we just tell him that we do? Our attitude toward our finances is an important factor in determining if we are too rich to give.
Mahria and I struggled with this for the first several years of our Christian walks. We were “left-over” kind of people. We loved the Lord and we would give to His work as long as we could afford it. We never seemed to have enough to give what we wanted to give. Then our pastor spoke about giving the Lord our first fruits.
What that meant is that we decided on an amount that we were going to give each week and we gave that amount regardless of what our finances were like that week. It took some time before we were able to do this consistently. We found that when we dedicated the first fruits of what the Lord provided for us, realizing that everything we had, great or small, was from Him, and wrote the first check of the week to the Lord, we always had enough at the end of the week to meet our needs.
We’ll talk more about this next week as we try to answer the question, “Are we ready to give?” But before we move on, please don’t misunderstand what I just shared to mean that the more you give the more you’re going to get. That’s a false prosperity doctrine that will never be taught here. What Mahria and I have learned is that the more we give the better stewards of our resources we become.
You see, God’s Word promises that He is faithful to care for us and meet all of our needs. In those times when it seems like we don’t have enough, it’s because we are not making the most of what the Lord has given us. It’s not that God has short-changed us in some way. So let us not fix our hope on our money. Instead, let us fix our hope on the Master.
Our Attitude toward the Master
And that’s exactly what Paul instructs the rich to do. They were not to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, “but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy.”
The riches of this world are uncertain. The best planning, the shrewdest investments, the best stewardship will never provide a guarantee of continuous prosperity. Thinking in economic terms, you can get rich quick, but there’s no guarantee you will stay that way forever. That’s what makes riches and the Master so different.
Whereas the fortunes of this world are changeable, God is unchangeable. This attribute of God is known as “immutability.” God is unchanging in his “being, perfections, purposes, and promises” (Berkhof, p. 58). Throughout Scripture, we are told about God’s unchangeableness. Listen to these verses.
“Of old You founded the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands. Even they will perish, but You endure; and all of them will wear out like a garment; like clothing You will change them and they will be changed. But You are the same, and Your years will not come to an end” (Psalm 102:25-27a).
“For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying, ‘My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish My good pleasure’” (Isaiah 46:9b-10).
“For I, the Lord, do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed” (Malachi 3:6).
“Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow” (James 1:17).
Because of His unchangeableness, “God provides far more security than any earthly investment” (MacArthur, p. 282). If you are involved in the stock market, some of the most basic advice you will receive is that you shouldn’t put all of your eggs into one basket. You should have a portfolio that is diversified. Some of your holdings should be in one market, while having other holdings in other markets.
Up until recently, if there was a corner of the market that seemed to be the veritable pot o’ gold, it was the “dot com” stocks. The Internet was the wave of the future. Those who were brave enough to ride the wave would become the “Big Cahuna” among their investing friends. Those who were not so confident were relegated to splashing in life’s mundane tide pools. As of late, it seems that those who put the bulk of their hope in the “dot com” world are being dragged out to sea by a swift undertow and are trying to doggie-paddle back to shore.”
In the natural world, there are no “sure things.” But in the eternal realm, there most certainly is—God. If we want to avoid becoming too rich in this world, so rich that we lose the capacity to give, we need to set our hope and focus, our attention on the Master. If we do that, the promise is that God will “richly supply us with all things to enjoy.”
The focus here is not on the size of our wealth that God will supply to those who fix their hope on Him. The focus in what Paul writes at the end of verse seventeen is on the richness of God’s generosity.
Solomon wrote these words in the Book of Ecclesiastes. “Furthermore, as for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, He has also empowered him to eat from them and to receive his reward and rejoice in his labor; this is the gift of God. For he will not often consider the years of his life, because God keeps him occupied with the gladness of his heart” (Ecclesiastes 5:19-20).
“The reason everything may be enjoyed lies in the recognition that everything, including one’s wealth, is a gift, the expression of God’s gracious generosity” (Fee, p. 157). As we fix our eyes on the Master’s generosity, we will enjoy everything He provides instead of worrying how we’re going to hang on to it. As we enjoy what the Lord provides, knowing that the Lord “is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think’ (Eph. 3:20a), we will discover a level of contentment in our lives that is itself a joy. As we live with contentment, trusting in the Lord’s sovereign care and provision, we will find ourselves giving to others without regret. And as we give without regret, we will find ourselves returning to thoughts of God’s incredible generosity.
It is a cycle that revolves around the grace and goodness of God. It is a cycle in which conceit can find no place to enter. It is a cycle that will keep us from running in circles, chasing after the riches of this world. It is a cycle that makes no guarantees of riches, but guarantees a rich and fulfilling life.
If we are putting our trust in the Lord and fixing our hope, all of our hope, on Him, then we can answer the question, “are we too rich to give,” with a resounding and emphatic, “No!” The amazing parallel to this truth is that when we can answer the question with an unhesitant, “No,” we will be rich indeed.
