There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty."—Prov. 11:24.
I fancy I hear the reader exclaim, "What a funny title! Whatever can it mean?"
Just listen to me while I relate an incident that happened in England some years ago. A Christian father had in his keeping the money-boxes of his two little children. They were kept locked, and the children didn't know how much was in them. One of them came to his father one day and said that he would like to get a present for his mother on her birthday, which was drawing near. His father explained to him that it would not be a present from him unless he paid for it out of his own money. The child was quite willing to do so. Soon after, the father took the boy into a shop to buy the present. They looked around, and at last the little fellow selected an article. On hearing the price, the father told him that he had not enough money to pay for it, and that he must choose something else. In a short time he did so. When the price was known, the father told the child that he would be able to pay for that, but that it would take the most of his money. The dear little fellow didn't mind that in the least, but said he would like to get that for mama. It was bought, paid for out of the boy's money, and given to the mother on her birthday.
The father was so much pleased with the unselfishness shown in the matter and at the affection manifested by the boy for his mother, that he determined that the child should not be a loser. From time to time the father slipped into his money-box a penny, sometimes a sixpence, and so on, till, without the child's knowing it, the amount was more than replaced.
Dear. fellow-believer, is there no lesson in the foregoing for you and for me?
If the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and (through grace) our God and our Father (John 20:17) sees us spending on ourselves and our own interests, the most of what He has entrusted us with (1 Cor. 4:2), will He not very likely do what He did as recorded in Hag. 1:3-11; 2:15-17? Now Hag. 1:12-14 and 2:18-19 show us the result of the word of the Lord having taken effect in the hearts and consciences of the people. If our God and Father sees you and me diligent in caring for the interests of His beloved Son-JESUS-our Lord, will it not delight His heart more than that of the father in the incident referred to above? and do you think we shall be losers by it? Read 2 Cor. 9:6-8; but also 2 Cor. 8:9 and 12, and weigh the matter over before the Lord; but be careful that you do not do something to get something. Let it be: "The love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead; and that He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again." (2 Cor. 5:14, 15)
O what a debt I owe
To Him who shed His blood,
And cleans'd my soul and gave me power
To stand before His God.
Savior and Lord, I own
The riches of Thy grace;
For I can call Thy God, my God-
Can bow before His face.
Thy Father, too, above,
I worship as my own;
Who gave with Thee the Spirit's cry,
To me a son foreknown.
Again, just ponder over this magnificent verse: “My God shall abundantly supply all your need according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus." (Phil. 4:19. New Translation.) What an inexhaustible amount, in such safe keeping and in such a money-box!