A lot of hard labor today, Father, but You got me through it! Thank You for the strength and the drive to see it through. Amen!

Luke 12:33-34 (<<click here to read the passage)

If I asked you the infamous question, “What’s in your wallet?”, what would your answer be? First of all, many of our minds would first go to the credit card company that uses that line in their advertising. But when I asked the question of Google, I also got a link for List Challenges where you could take a quiz to see where you fall amongst other participants with what you carry in your wallet. (If you’d like to take the quiz, click on it.)

Of the 77 items on their list, I only carry 11 in my wallet. I ranked 8,186 out of 11,402 users on that particular list. The average items carried is 17. I’m not going to lose any sleep over my ranking!

I have a debit card, a couple of credit cards – one of which I use regularly, bonus cards, a library card, a little bit of cash, and a couple of other things. Some items I have never carried in my wallet are a teabag, matches, or earplugs – all on the list.

I benefit quite a bit from my study Bible. I’ve referred to it numerous times over the years – it’s a Life Application Study Bible and mine happens to be in the New Living Translation. It is available in several translations. But the Life Application part often gets my mind going.

For example, when I read through this passage the very last note posed a question, “Does God’s love touch your wallet?”

Hmmmm…well, it made me stop and think. I’m not sure that I am always successful. In some ways, I would say yes. We are faithful givers to our churches. We support parachurch ministries, one, in particular, is Wycliffe Associates who are striving to translate God’s word into every language in the world! When we go out to eat, I feel that it is important to give a worker his/her due, so I try to be a good tipper. If we have unwanted gently used goods, I try to make sure we donate them to institutions that help the less fortunate. Those are a few good and important things.

But I don’t always part with our money so freely. I struggle with panhandlers standing on the corners asking for handouts. I hang up on robocalls from organizations soliciting donations, even if they are calling from law enforcement or political affiliates I support or for cancer research. I keep the return address labels with my name on them from those who send them to me asking for money, but everything else goes in the trash.

Some of those reactions are wise but where I feel that I need to be careful is that I don’t allow my heart to be calloused to the point where it is dead to the need of others. Sometimes giving is risky.

My one church is on a main highway heading out of our area. We’ve had so many people stop and ask for assistance – it is usually for gas money – that we keep a couple of gas gift cards on hand to help when asked. They are not for huge amounts, but we pray that we impact them with our gift. Are they spent on gas? Or wasted on something else? Or traded for something else? We don’t really know but we do it because we know it is the right thing to do. God knows our intentions and He honors them.

Lord Jesus, may we all take the time to ponder the question “Does God’s love touch your wallet?” May we be generous to Your kingdom no matter what it looks like or who it is. Amen.

Aug 10th, 2020, Mon, 8:65 pm