A DYING TRADITION
by Donald Norbie
One can remember receiving a check and a letter from a missionary in New Guinea. "You taught me the Word in years past and I have been convicted that I have never shared with you financially. The Word states, ‘Let him who is taught the word share in all good things with him who teaches’” (Galatians 6:6). Such personal exercise of heart is tremendously encouraging to the worker and also blesses the giver.
It is true that much of one’s giving will be through the local assembly (1 Corinthians 16:1-2). This is proper and it is part of our collective worship. There may be the expense of maintaining the chapel and there will be the corporate exercise to give to certain workers and to pray for them as a body of believers. But there is still much room for the Spirit of God to move the believer to pray and to give personally. It is too easy for one to fall into a dull routine of giving to the assembly and letting the elders be concerned about the distribution of funds.
Elijah asks the widow of Zarephath for a drink of water and also requests, “Please bring me a morsel of bread in your hand” (1 Kings 17:11 NKJ). She responds, “I do not have bread, only a handful of flour in a bin and a little oil in a jar.” Her plan is to make one last meal for herself and her son – and then die. The famine is extreme in the land. Elijah says to her, “Do not fear; go and do as you have said, but make me a small cake from it first, and bring it to me; and afterward make some for yourself and your son.” Elijah promises her that her flour bin would never be empty nor her oil jar run dry.
To put the prophet of God first is to put God first. The woman builds her fire, mixes her meal into a small cake, and bakes it. Then in an amazing display of faith she brings it hot from the fire and gives it to the man of God. God first! Her flour never did run out nor did her supply of oil run dry. God is faithful.
Through the preaching of Paul and his company Lydia is converted and is baptized. She then pleads with them, “if you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay” (Acts 16:15). Hospitality is a costly giving of oneself and one’s home to others. Lydia is moved by the grace of God to give.
To give personally will prompt one to pray more fervently for the work and the worker. “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21). Invest money in the Lord’s work and your heart will be increasingly occupied with the Lord’s things. Money can be sent directly in some cases or through a giving agency or the local assembly. But it is coming from you personally, from your exercise of heart, bathed in your prayers. This will also move you to write to encourage the servants of God, a much needed ministry. Surely our hearts should be moved to give as we remember God’s gift to us. “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!” (2 Corinthians 9:15).
From Missions Magazine, January 1993
