Have you ever wanted God to owe you?  

A week — in the Nold household — rarely goes by without receiving a mailing sent to entice us to borrow money from another credit card company. Actually pretty amazing that so many people want to lend me money. They are just standing in line waiting for me to sign on the line. Of course one reason for our current economic crisis is that too many organizations loaned money (called a mortgage) to people who would never be able to pay them back. Have you ever loaned money to someone who didn’t repay you? Makes you a bit nervous about lending the next time.

Last year I ran across a verse in Proverbs chapter 19 verse 17. It caught my attention, because I have always believed — that when it comes to my stuff — that I am a steward, not an owner. I try to operate from the perspective that everything I have belongs to God. It all belongs to God, everything I have is a gift from God.

That’s why Proverbs 19:17 caught my attention. It tells us the secret to putting God in your obligation; getting God to owe you. Here is what is written,

If you help the poor, you are lending to the Lord and he will repay you!

Help the poor and God is obligated to repay you.  When we feed the poor, give water to those who are thirsty, serve those in need, we are lending to God. God gives us an IOU.  Wow.  So let’s think about this for a moment.

1. Everything I have belongs to God. But when I use what belongs to God, to serve those in need, I lend to God. He pays me back.

Wow.  That’s so amazing that I’m not sure I really get it.  Sounds too good to be true, but that’s just the Old Testament version.  It gets better.  In the New Testament, God sweetens the deal.  In Luke 6:38 Jesus says,

Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full–pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.

So when we give, we lend to God.  He doesn’t just repay us.  He overpays us.  Perhaps the reason why, we — the American people — have so much debt is because we are trying to hang on to what we have rather than putting a generous God in our debt.  I know, I’m not even comfortable writing that and the fact that I can is simply evidence of a God whose generosity is beyond beyond…

At Calvary we are challenging each other to give ONE% of our annual income to serve those in need around the world.  Give to the poor, lend to God.