An Appointment with Christ: Proverbs 3 (Part 6)

We have been obtaining our last meditations from a very profound Chapter of the word of the Lord found in the Book of Proverbs, Chapter 3 specifically. The Book of Proverbs was largely written by the wise Solomon, one of the wisest men that ever lived.

The Bible says that God gave Solomon wisdom like no man before or after him. The writers who contributed their teachings to the Book of Proverbs were men enlightened and inspired by the holy spirit and therefore their advice has that characteristic depth of God's wisdom. We have seen through these last meditations how the Bible calls us to treasure it and to place it above all other things and to make it the very foundation of our lives. And we have seen how God promises that the person who bases his life on the principles of God's word has the right to expect a happy life before God, before men. The Bible calls us to have an attitude of dependence on God, not to trust in ourselves or our own intelligence, but to trust wholeheartedly in the Lord, not to be wise in our own opinion, that is, not to consider ourselves ourselves as wise, but to view ourselves humbly knowing that our wisdom rather depends on God's wisdom.

There is so much wonderful advice in this Book of Proverbs and specifically in this Chapter 3. This time I have been meditating on verses 9 and 10 of Chapter 3 of Proverbs and I want to share it with my listeners. It says there in Proverbs 3, 9 and 10: “Honor the Lord with your possessions and with the first fruits of all your produce, and your barns will be filled with abundance and your presses will overflow with must.”

It is a passage that unless one understands the historical context in which the Bible was written, we may not be able to fully understand it, and in fact a passage like this teaches us the importance of knowing something about the history of the Bible. Bible to be able to understand all its teachings. This is something that takes time, but every person with a little study and accumulating teachings about the Bible can easily extract the advice and teachings that the Bible contains.

For example, this passage says "Honor Jehovah with your possessions...", that is quite simple, what it is saying there is that we have to please God, honor him, revere him, show him respect, how? With our assets, that is, with our belongings, with our money, with the material and financial resources that we have. Many people believe that honoring God is simply a matter of saying God, I honor you, I respect you, you are great, you are powerful, but truly if we want to honor God we have to put, as they say, our mouth where it is. our pocket. It is not possible to love God in a merely theoretical and abstract way. If we love God we have to honor him with our belongings. Now, evidently God is the owner of the entire universe. He was the one who created all the gold, all the silver as the Bible says "... mine is the gold, mine is the silver." God is the owner of all the atoms that make up the universe. He does not need our money, there is nothing, in fact, that we can do to improve even infinitely in minimum the well-being that God enjoys, but nevertheless the Bible says Honor Jehovah with your goods.

How are we going to honor God with our possessions? Well, the Bible talks about us supporting God's work here on earth. By us, for example, sharing our money with the church that does God's work on earth, we are honoring God. Every church has needs for electricity, the pastor's salary or the priest's support, for the maintenance of the house of God, for the programs and the ministries and missions that the church supports. All these things demand money, and in the Bible we see that God told the Hebrew people to always give 10% of their income and to set aside that for the affairs and the needs and the expenses that were carried out in the temple. And every Hebrew, every pious Jew had to bring to God to the temple that 10% of their income, the tithe is called, so that the temple could carry out its different tasks and satisfy its various needs and that those who served the Lord in the temple could meet their personal needs.

God devised this so that in this way men would honor Him, and when the Hebrews gave their tithe to the temple they were obeying God and therefore honoring the Lord. It is an indirect way of recognizing that God is the owner of everything we have. Some people will say: Ah, but 10% of my income is too much. Remember that everything you have comes from God, God is the one who gives you the strength to work, gives you health, gives you intelligence, gives you the means and not only that, but God promises that when we give him a portion of our goods, He will bless us much more than what we give. Many Christians, including the one speaking to you, can testify in a totally convincing way, convinced that when we give generously to the Lord, God never tires of blessing us and replenishing everything we give to Him.

The Bible He says: He who sows sparingly will reap sparingly, but he who sows bountifully will reap bountifully. When you give to the Lord with a generous heart, when you honor him with your goods, you then receive the benefit of God's blessing on your life. God prospers you, God blesses you, God supports your finances, God closes the door through which so much money escapes, many times with illnesses, with divorces, with losses and with so many ways in which we waste money. When we honor God, He blesses our belongings and blesses our financial resources. You can do much more with 90% of your money when you give God that 10% than when you save 100% and don't have God's blessing on your money.

We must honor God, it is a way for us to honor the Lord and God asks us for our money, not because He needs it, but as a symbolic act because if you give of what you love, of what is important, then truly you are showing love. There is no such thing as loving a person and not showing that love in concrete and personal ways. That is why I believe that God has allowed us to give to Him, it is not that we give to Him, we give to the things that He loves, and in that way we honor Him. We can also honor God with our goods Helping others. There are many people in need around us and a contribution, a love offering can help someone out of a bind. If you look around you, you will always find ways to be an agent of God's mercy, and honor God with your goods. When you give, give in the name of the Lord. There are relatives of yours that perhaps you could get out of a bind with some money, there are dispossessed people on the street that you can bless with some money, there are social causes that you can help in the name of the Lord by contributing to the work of God. Be generous with your goods, Honor Jehovah with your goods and with the first fruits of all your fruits, that is to say, with the first of what you earn, with what you have chosen, give God the best of your life, the first fruits, the most important, it says: ...and your barns will be filled with abundance, here he is referring to people who lived in an agricultural society, the barns say, the grain will never be lacking in your barn. That means that, in modern terms, there will never be a lack of good in your home. Food will never be lacking, health will never be lacking. The blessing will never be lacking in your home. Abundance will never be lacking. Because when you give to God generously, God never tires of blessing you and giving you his great love. I hope that you are a generous person towards God and that you always honor him with your goods. God bless you.