THINK TOGETHER.
What makes sharing so fun?
READ TOGETHER
Proverbs 23:6-7. 6Do not eat the bread of a man who is stingy; do not desire his delicacies, 7for he is like one who is inwardly calculating. “Eat and drink!” he says to you, but his heart is not with you.
Yesterday we were warned to not work only for the love of money. Why not? Well one reason is that people who love money often become stingy. And in this saying we are being warned about being around stingy people.
What does stingy mean? What is a stingy person? Stingy is the opposite of generous. A generous person gives what they have to others. They are kind and helpful. They easily give their money away. But a stingy person holds on to what they have. They don’t share and they don’t care. If they give, it is only the bare minimum. They might even pretend to be caring – Eat and drink, he says to you – but they don’t actually care about others at all – his heart is not with you.
What causes stinginess? Stinginess comes from a bad heart. A wrong belief. When we think that what we have is actually ours and not God’s, we become stingy. But everything we have comes from God. Therefore, everything we have should be shared with others.
What cures stinginess? Knowing that with Jesus we share everything with him. Jesus is the least stingy person ever. He gives away everything that is his, even his own life, his own perfection. And not just because he HAS TO, but because he WANTS TO. His heart is with us. His love is with us always, and one day we will be with him and have the whole universe. When we believe this, there’s no need to be stingy anymore is there?
Because of Jesus God is never stingy with us.
With Jesus we can be generous because nothing is ours and everything is his.
DO SOMETHING TOGETHER
A Christmas Carol is the classic story of stinginess. Find a version of the story that you can read or watch together. Talk about how Scrooge overcame his stinginess. How does Jesus help us overcome ours?
PRAY TOGETHER
Jesus, I don’t want to be stingy. Help me to see that all I have is from you and meant to be shared with others. Amen.
TLICfamily 