Morning & Evening Devotional Reading–

October 26– Morning

 by C. H. Spurgeon, revised and edited by W. C. Neff

“You looked for much, but you only received little. And when you brought it home, I blew even that away. Why? Because my house is broken down, while everyone keeps their own houses in good order.” 

—Haggai 1:9

Rude Christians lessen their contributions to the ministry and missionary operations and call it “good economy”; little do they dream that they’re making themselves poor. Their excuse is that they must care for their own families, and they forget that to neglect the house of God is the sure way to bring ruin upon their own houses. Our God has a way of causing our endeavors to succeed beyond our expectation, or he can defeat our plans to our confusion and dismay; by a turn of his hand he can steer our boat into a profitable channel or run it aground in poverty and bankruptcy.

It is the teaching of Scripture that the Lord enriches the liberal and leaves the miserly to find out that withholding usually brings poverty. In a very wide sphere of observation, I have noticed that the most generous Christians I know have been the happiest and almost invariably the most prosperous. I have seen the liberal giver rise to wealth of which he never dreamed; and I have just as often seen the mean, ungenerous miser descend to poverty by the very means he thought was making him wealthy.

Men trust good stewards with larger and larger sums, and so it frequently is with the Lord; he gives by cartloads to those who give by bushels. Where wealth is not given, the Lord makes a little stretch a long way by the contentment the sanctified heart feels when the tithe has been dedicated to the Lord.

Selfishness looks first at home, but godliness seeks first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, but in the long run selfishness is loss, and godliness is great gain. It needs faith to act towards our God with an open hand, but surely he deserves it from us; and all that we can do is a very poor acknowledgment of our amazing indebtedness to his goodness. [M&E]