Day 62.
You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him, because for this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake. For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, “You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.” (Deuteronomy 15:10, 11 ESV)
There is no shortage of passages that tell us to be generous to the poor. When you see a brother in need you are to “open wide your hand” and be generous noting that God has blessed you with this purpose in mind. He has made you steward over enough to meet your needs as well as be generous to others. Paul writes something similar in Ephesians 4:28, “Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.”
What else is interesting is the qualifications of those to whom we to give – the needy and the poor. It does not say the needy and poor who have worked hard and fallen on hard times. It gives no qualification other than need. This is the way grace works. It requires no condition, other than need, as to who receives it. In this way, we are called to reflect God’s heart.
Lord, help me to trust you to provide as I encounter the needs of the poor, that I might not be reluctant to give.
