Proverbs 11.24-27 says,...

Today's verses are Proverbs 11:24-27, which read,

v.24-26 - There is one who scatters, and yet increases all the more, and there is one who withholds what is justly due, and yet it results only in want.  The generous man will be prosperous, and he who waters will himself be watered.  He who withholds grain, the people will curse him, but blessing will be on the head of him who sells it.

This proverb has it own explanation.  What is being scattered?  The answer is the generosity of the wise.  It doesn't seem logical that if you give away that you will actually have more but we are talking about God's system and not man's.  Man's system looks at the things in your hands while God's system includes all of your life.  

When someone withholds from a need, what is justly due, that someone will lose out while holding onto something that cannot feed the soul as God can.  This passage reminds me of the account of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5.  At the end of chapter 4, Barnabas, a wise and generous man, gives to the need by selling a tract of land and he is praised by the people but also would be used by God to team up with Paul and take the gospel all over Asia Minor.  In chapter 5, Ananias and Sapphira, the foolish and withholding, are met with the same need but they withhold a portion of the sale of their land but say it is the full amount and it ends in death for lying not only to men but also to God.  It was not the withholding of the amount that brought this on but the withholding of the honesty about it.  They were not generous in their respect of the holiness of God.  They thought they could fudge on this before men and God and there would be no consequences.  They were so wrong.  They had put more value on what they had in their pockets than following after a holy God who supplies all our needs as we follow after all of His ways.  

v.27 - He who diligently seeks good seeks favor, but he who seeks evil, evil will come to him.

How generous are you when you think about your following after God?  Have you given Him your whole life?  Are you diligently seeking after the only One who is good?  The favor we should cherish the most is His and not the coins in our pockets that represent the very limited pleasures of the world.  Do you see yourself seeking for the pleasures of the world that many times cause you to alter your position about God's perfect ways?  You have to "fudge" on God's words and ways a little bit to get that worldly pleasure but that's okay because the consequences might be small or maybe none at all.  Maybe you can make up for it later somehow to God.  Maybe this was the thought of Ananias and Sapphira but that was not possible because God, being God, with perfect justice took action immediately.  In His perfect justice and love He protected the new church with a fear that His words and ways matter to be followed and not excused away.

When I open the door a crack and allow evil to linger in my life then I am also opening the door for Satan to do a little more with the material I have given him.  He will use that compromise and make it grow and with it will come the consequences of a life that centers on self rather than a life centered on God and our love for others.  It may look like you have more in your clenched hands but God is seeking those who will open up those hand for Him to use to serve others.  

Look at your hands today.  Are they clenched around something or are they open and ready to be used to carry something God wants you to carry?  Generous hands will be open and they will get filled by God.  Withholding hands will be closed and they will not be able to receive the blessings of God which are so much more valuable than what is being clenched in those hands.  Let's put our value on what God calls valuable and not what the world says you have to have and you got to fudge on God to get it.  Let's pray.

"Lord, it is a whole different system that You run.  It is a different drummer that we march to when we follow after You.  Our priorities and values need to start lining up with Yours and help us to see when we are withholding from following after You.  May we see the consequences that are beyond the immediate that we are incurring so we will follow hard after You with open hands.  Amen."

Pastor Adam