BE A RIVER, NOT A RESERVOIR (PART III)

“True Living is in Giving”

By Akin Ojumu

Our world is that of sinful cravings and selfish desires. On a daily basis, we wrestle within ourselves against our inner desire to acquire anything and everything that impinges upon our senses. What we see and hear we want to own, and what we smell, taste, and touch we want to consume. 

Life for many has become a gluttonous feeding of their riotous rapaciousness. The more we have, the more our basal urges propel us to want to have. Driven by pure greed, there are those who have sold their soul in exchange for worldly goods. Many have taken to cunning craftiness and shifty subterfuge in order to attain the riches of this world.

Confusing wealth for worth, the desire to be somebody in the eyes of an admiring world has driven many to unthinkable deeds. Inordinate greed has become a socially acceptable human trait. Human worth is weighed on the scale of the preponderance of earthly goods. The life of a man is measured in terms of the abundance of things he possesses. 

Long forgotten is the wisdom of the sage that says, “For your life to have value, it has to be more valuable than what you possess. For your possession to have value, it has to be more valuable than what you keep.”

Though the rich lord it over the poor and make them slaves, it is the LORD that owns the cattle on a thousand hills. Whereas the world is quick to value people on how much earthly goods they possess, the One who created the heavens and the earth and everything in them is no respecter of persons. In His divine wisdom, he makes some rich and some poor, but one is not greater than the other. In the eyes of their Maker, they are of equal value and equal worth.

As long as the earth remains, the poor will never cease to be in the land. The rich and the poor have one thing in common; the LORD made them both. God made some poor, so that the rich will have an avenue to share their possession, and in the process realize the joy of giving. God made some rich so that the needs of the poor will be supplied, and the generosity of the rich will result in a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the One from whom all blessings flow. 

As long as there is a need and lack, there will always be an opportunity to give and supply. The one who has is called to open his bowel of compassion to joyfully share with his brother, thankfully give to the needy, and freely distribute to the poor in the land.

It’s impossible for any man to carry himself on his own shoulders, for the shoulders are made to carry somebody else. We are our brother’s keeper. We are God’s answers to our somebody’s prayers, and we are the solution to someone else’s problems. Channels of God’s blessings are who we are.

A flowing river is forever fresh because it’s replenished with freshwater at all times. Because there is no outlet in a reservoir, the water quickly becomes putrid and rank. The LORD created us to be a river and not a reservoir. Your life will forever be fresh, and you'll want for nothing, if you put on the mantle of a giver; always giving and never lacking. 

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16).

It’s in giving that you'll discover true living, and it’s in giving that you'll find true meaning. A man who receives is blessed for sure, but the blessedness in giving far exceeds that in receiving. For a man who turns his back on his brother in need is a man who's already dead but doesn’t yet know it.

So, determine today to be a relentless giver, and you’ll forever enjoy the abundance of Jehovah Jireh, the LORD who is our reckless Provider.