Someone asked, ‘Who’s richer? The man with five million or the man with five kids?”
The answer obviously is the latter, because if you have five kids you won’t want any more.
I agree – having been blessed with three, but grandkids is a different matter- bring them all on!
One interesting thing about having grandchildren has been seeing how they are at sharing or rather how very quickly they unlearn it and get greedy shouting “mine!” like those seagulls in Finding Nemo.
What did your Mum tell you when you had two cookies and your brother or sister had none?
Was it, “Quick, eat ’em both before she can get one?!”
I doubt it.
When kids have SOME – more than they need – of anything, and someone else hasn’t, you know what mums and dads, aunties, uncles and teachers would tell you: “Share.”
Good parents will say, “Don’t be greedy. You have to learn to share.”
Maybe that’s why Jesus said, “Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away…”
Now imagine seeing the world from God’s point of view – the Father can see everybody in the world. He gave everyone everything and he sees everyone who has two cookies – and everybody who has none, all at the same time. What do you think the Father would say?
If God has blessed me with more than I need, what if it’s not just so I can hold on tight to it, or have it all – but it’s so that I can gratefully share, with others.
This week I was privileged to talk about stewardship and generosity to some very generous people in an online thanks celebration to long time donors for the wonderful charity TEARFUND. We said thank you to the outgoing CEO of 10 years Nigel Harris, heard an excellent presentation from Stewardship on the state of generosity in the UK from their latest study, then it was to me to encourage these people who give that they are not crazy for doing so, but incredibly wise to invest in what matters most and forever.
As I looked at the other Zoom screens, I didn’t see anyone sitting in palatial settings, but ordinary people in ordinary homes being part of something extraordinary, impacting millions of the poorest people and raising them up into a new future. They were rich – in good deeds.
I have to say I love to encourage people to give big to Kingdom projects, because I know when we get to heaven we’ll never regret a penny of it through I’ll have countless other things reasons the Lord may have to wipe the tears out of my eyes – because of how much I squandered so selfishly from all he has given me. Reflecting on what I talked about with those hundreds of wise stewards the other night I realise they were rich the way the Bible describes it; in good deeds.
Generosity Isn’t About What You Have. It’s About Who You Are.
It’s not about the bank account.
It’s about the heart account.
Jesus once said, “Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away.” He wasn’t setting a rule—He was casting an exciting vision for how we’re meant to live, based upon confidence that He will provide for those who live to give, not get, knowing that if God gave you more than you need its not to hold onto it… but to give it away.
Confessions of a Greedaholic
“Hi, I’m Anthony.
And I’m a recovering greedaholic.”
Even with good parents and a solid upbringing, my first instinct and emotion around money wasn’t generosity—it was scarcity. Fear. Hold tight. Don’t let go. Maybe you’ve been there too?
Some of us grew up with little, so we grasp.
Others had much, and now they grip tighter.
Either way—the issue is not income, it’s about what comes out when life squeezes us.
Jesus pointed this out constantly and He never said greed is a money problem. He diagnosed it as a heart problem.
The Hidden Danger of Greed
Let’s be honest—nobody thinks they’re greedy.
You’ll hear:
- “I’m just careful with money.”
- “I’m a planner.”
- “I’m worried about the future.”
But rarely, if ever will someone say, “I think I might have a greedy heart.” Tim Keller said that’s because greed hides in our hearts.
It dresses up like wisdom. But it’s fueled by fear, and it blocks generosity every time.
Check your heart today:
Three Kinds of Heart: Which One Do You Have?
God has written a prescription for a world where everyone has enough in Deuteronomy 15. He promised, “There need be no poor people among you in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance, for he will richly bless you… IF… IF ONLY you fully obey the Lord your God and are careful to follow all these commands I am giving you today. For the Lord your God will bless you as he has promised, and you will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. You will rule over many nations but none will rule over you.”
In other words, you’ll always have enough, and enough to be generous with. IF ONLY..
Then here in Deuteronomy 15, the Lord outlines the three heart conditions we still see and suffer with today. Which one sounds like you?
1. The Greedy Heart
Tight-fisted. Quick to say “mine.” Hard to let go. Always worried about not having enough.
Vs 7-9 “When you happen on someone who’s in trouble or needs help among your people with whom you live in this land that God, your God, is giving you, don’t look the other way pretending you don’t see him. Don’t keep a tight grip on your purse.
(Other translations say “do not be hard hearted or tight fisted.’)
No. Look at him, open your purse, lend whatever and as much as he needs. Don’t count the cost. Don’t listen to that selfish voice… and turn aside and leave your needy neighbour in the lurch, refusing to help him. He’ll call God’s attention to you and your blatant sin.
2. The Grudging Heart
This when you give—but reluctantly. There’s no joy, no love. Just obligation. Like Judas criticizing the woman who poured perfume on Jesus: more concerned with the money than the meaning. Knowing th price, but not the value as they say.
10-11 “Give freely and spontaneously. Don’t have a stingy heart. The way you handle matters like this triggers God, your God’s, blessing in everything you do, all your work and ventures. There are always going to be poor and needy people among you. So I command you: Always be generous, open purse and hands, give to your neighbors in trouble, your poor and hurting neighbours.“
You can give, time, money, service – but it doesn’t matter if you’ve worked miracles if one day Jesus says, “I never knew you.”
God wants us to have a heart like his.
A greedy heart hates to give.
A grudging heart gives without love.
A generous heart loves to give.
3. The Generous Heart
Loves to give. Looks for the chance. Goes above and beyond—not out of excess, but out of trust.
Verse 12-15 ‘If (someone) was sold to you and has served you for six years, in the seventh year you must set him or her free, released into a free life. And when you set them free don’t send them off empty-handed. Provide them with some animals, plenty of bread and wine and oil. Load them with provisions – from all the blessings with which God, your God, has blessed you. “
it’s important to remember God is looking into the future for them here. When they come into that promised land – receive his PRO-VISION in the promised land. He gives an example of what it looks like to be generous to someone, so he picks a servant. These people didn’t have servants at that time – they’d come out of slavery themselves!
He wants to show them how to think and act in the future, IF and when they obey their way into the promised land. So he says when they get to that place where there is ENOUGH, he doesn’t want them to just do the bare minimum. He wants them to always go ABOVE and BEYOND. That’s generosity. That’s what it does.
It doesn’t just give, a generous heart goes above and beyond.
Because I know I’ve been blessed, I want to share. Blessings have come to me, but I don’t just want more blessings FOR me – when blessings come my way I don’t assume they’re all for me. I’m blessed and I want to be a blessing. I want to find someone in need – and LOAD YOU UP. With provisions from all the blessings the Lord gave me.
Which heart do you want to have?
What Blocks Generosity? Fear.
Fear whispers:
- “What if I give, and then I don’t have enough?”
- “What if they waste it?”
- “What if the economy crashes?”
- “What if God doesn’t come through?”
Fear in the heart always leads to clutching hands.
Faith always leads to open hands.
Do You Trust God’s Pro-Vision?
The word provision literally means foresight.
God sees ahead. He knows what you’ll need before you need it.
Romans 8:32 says:
“He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also… graciously give us all things?”
Translation:
If God gave you Jesus, do you really think He’ll hold out on you now?
The Grateful Heart: Where Generosity Grows
Only the Holy Spirit can change a greedy heart.
But here’s the condition: you have to stay awake during the surgery.
Generosity grows in the soil of gratitude.
God told the Israelites: “Don’t forget you were slaves in Egypt.”
In other words:
“Remember what I brought you out of—so you can enter what I’m bringing you into.”
Want to Be More Generous? Start with This Question:
Why me?
Why do I have what I have?
Not, “Why don’t I have more?”
But, “Why do I have so much?”
That’s the real shift.
A grateful heart asks:
What’s all this for?
And God answers:
So you can share.
This Week’s Challenge:
✅ Ask God, “Why me?”
✅ Look at all you’ve been given.
✅ Find someone in need—and load them up with blessings.
✅ Do it in secret. Just between you and your Father.
Jesus said, “Your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.”
Final Word – A Cookie Tale 🍪
Let this little poem remind us what’s really ours… and what’s His:
A woman was waiting at an airport one night,
with many long hours before her flight.
She found a book in the airport shop,
and a bag of cookies and a place to drop.Engrossed in her book, but she happened to see,
that the man sitting beside her, as bold as could be…
grabbed a cookie or two from the bag in between,
which she tried to ignore to avoid a scene.She munched the cookies and watched the clock,
as the gutsy cookie thief diminished her stock.Her collar went hot as the minutes ticked by,
thinking, “If I wasn’t so nice, I’d blacken his eye.”With each cookie she took, he took one too.
With only one left, what would HE do?With a smile on his face, and a nervous laugh,
he took the last cookie and broke it in half.He offered her half, as he ate the other.
She snatched it quickly and thought… ‘Oh, brother!This guy has some nerve, he’s so very rude,
to not even show me some gratitude!’She could not recall when she’d last been so galled,
and sighed with relief when her flight was called.She grabbed her belongings and went to the gate,
refusing to look at the thieving ingrate.She boarded the plane, and sank in her seat,
then looked for her book, which was almost complete.As she reached in her baggage, she gasped with surprise.
There was her bag of cookies, in front of her eyes.“If mine are here,” she moaned in despair,
“the others were his – and he tried to share!”Too late to apologize, she realized with grief,
that she was the rude one, the ingrate, the thief.
As my friend J John says after telling this story:
👉 “REMEMBER — GOD OWNS ALL THE COOKIES!”