https://odb.org/MY/2021/11/04/rainy-days
I remembered the founding pastor of a church in Thailand many years back spoke at a conference at my previous church and talked about how he gave away his building fund for a needy cause when God prompted him. It certainly caused a stir among those who heard it! But the point was that generosity breeds abundant blessings and since the building fund ultimately came from God, he could give it away when prompted by God. The same attitude Abraham had when God asked him to sacrifice Isaac.
Everyone if they can save, will save for a rainy day. Individuals and churches are no exceptions. We save what we can, not spend all we can. We also invest for the future, hoping the ROI will offset inflation which reduces our purchasing power, the value of money. Some of us make riskier investments for better returns while most just stick with the good old FDs. Yet there are some who don’t believe in banks and prefer to invest in gold or Rolex watches or property or even US Dollars!
So we have saved for the rainy day. We have worked hard to save up. But it’s not yet raining at our end. I think the metaphor originated from agricultural settings as farmers can’t work on rainy days and thus if we had saved up some grain from previous harvests, we will have some to eat today. In our modern world, we are talking mostly of liquid assets and the most useful is cash.
So it is not raining at our end, but it is raining elsewhere or perhaps there is a famine somewhere else that prevented any harvesting at all. What do we do? Do we help out? Do we sell the food that we had hoarded as per Proverbs 11:26? The point is a generous person will prosper. He who refreshes others will be refreshed. See Proverbs 11:25.
From giving away our building fund, to giving out some money we saved for our rainy day to people in need, to lending our money to those who need (equivalent to selling the grain we hoarded), there is a wide range of things we can do. These are rightfully ours to keep, legally and morally, but should we be selfless and generous instead? The bible teaches that if we are generous, God will reward us. Do we believe God or do we trust just ourselves and our money?
Ronnie's Thoughts 