Five for 50

I stood at the kitchen sink and exclaimed to myself, "I need a new thing to hold my dish sponge." In my mind I pictured a shiny, sleek stainless steel holder that would hide the ugly look of worn sponges.

And then, as quickly as the first thought popped into my head, this conviction came, "No, I don't NEED a new holder. I don't even NEED an old holder." (I actually don't even have a holder, so this was a strange conversation to be having with myself!)

In America the line between necessity and luxury has been grossly blurred...and, if we are honest, we will agree that our list of "needs" actually includes a large number of indulgences.

Sometimes we deceive ourselves into thinking that we have to meet our own needs before giving money to others...and yet so many of those "needs" are not truly necessary. Sure they make life more convenient or fun, and I'm not saying there isn't room for that in our lives, BUT how is it that we can so easily live lives of convenience and fun while the world around us starves, aches, and dies?

Lately my heart has been so heavy about this...heavy like it has fallen from my chest and is lodged somewhere around my knee. If you are a follower of Christ, how can you justify this? (Believe me, I am not asking you anything I'm not asking myself).

We tend to hear stories of hurting people and pray "Oh, Lord, help them"...but perhaps His help to them is through us. And I don't just mean that 10% tithe (which actually is an OT command for the Jews) I mean giving sacrificially. Living with less so others can live with more. Living with much less so that others can simply live.

From what I see in the NT there are 12 COMMANDS about giving and 14 COMMANDS about money. If we were all honest, very few of us would be able to say that we are truly obedient to them all. But if we were...how different would the world look?

God does bless us with nice things sometimes as a gift...and sometimes He gives us the OK to make the purchase ourselves. But I would venture to say that most of us, myself included, have bought things just because we wanted them, out of impulse, from wrong motives, etc.

I pray that God will work in all of us to allow HIM to bless us rather than trying so hard to bless ourselves....that He will give us discernment between luxuries and necessities...and that He will put His giving nature in our hearts so that when we use the money (His money) that He has placed in our hands, it will be to bless others first and ourselves second.

If you are looking for someone with whom to share the resources God has placed in your hands, consider FIVE FOR 50. I was directed to this site by Jamie from tinyrockstar, and it is a Hopechest campaign where they share that for $5 they can feed an orphan for a month (100 meals). There is a precious video on the site.