Luke 12:32-34
By Drew Zuverink
"Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
I'm very thankful for medical professionals, aren't you? One of the things I appreciate the most about them is when they warn us against all sorts of things that damage our health. Their warnings are especially helpful when it comes to things as serious as our hearts. Since we need a healthy heart in order to survive and thrive, the experts tell us to protect it by avoiding certain things like too much greasy food.
The Bible talks about another thing that we need to protect our hearts from - money. Now of course money isn't bad, even Jesus had a little bit of money, but he also taught that it can quickly damage our heart if we aren't very careful. Jesus is like a heart doctor, warning us that perhaps more than anything else, having money is a health risk.
So how do we keep our hearts healthy while living in a world where we need money?
We need to avoid the trap of being selfish with our finances. Selfishness is a heart killer. Literally, it's bad for our physical, emotional, and spiritual health. Jesus knows this, and he also knows that where our treasure goes, our heart will follow. I don't know about you but I've experienced this many times. In seasons when I spend and spend and spend on myself, guess who I start to think about more often? You guessed it, myself! In those seasons, I usually become an unhealthy version of Drew, and it doesn't feel good. To the contrary, when I buy gifts for friends, give to my local church, or donate to needy families, I can literally feel my heart start to care more about others, which feels a lot better.
Many of us think that if we truly care about something then we'll give towards it. We reason that if we really cared about things like our church, the homeless, charities, medical cures, etc, then we would give towards those things. If we aren't giving then that must mean we don't care very much. While this can sometimes be true, it might be more accurate to say that when we give towards something or someone, then we will start to care more about it because now we've invested in it. We like to think that our money follows our heart, but Jesus taught that our heart usually follows our money.
Jesus not only taught that sharing with others feels better than keeping more for ourselves (Acts 20:35), he also taught that giving is healthy for our hearts because it moves them off of ourselves and onto others. But do you want to know the best part about being a generous person? It makes God really, really happy (2 Cor. 9:6-7).
May all of us Christians become absurdly generous givers.
Comments