God’s Business Practice || Psalm 112:5 || Manna for the Mind #85

Welcome to Day 85 of the “Manna for the Mind” devotional! This series is about taking scripture passages (typically 1-3 verses) and building our understanding of their teachings through their context and connecting scripture. I believe that doing this helps us understand how to be the type of human that God created us to be.

Today’s verse is Psalm 112:5. We will learn from healthy business practices today.

Psalm 112:5

5             Good comes to those who lend money generously and conduct their business fairly.

Generosity can cure two problems that holding on to money creates

Accumulating wealth can cause us to ignore those in need, including those dependent on us. We get so focused on the unknown of the future that we believe we must hoard and hang on to all our resources. We see fluctuations in the stock market, inflation highs and lows, housing market pricing issues, political turmoil and division, job instability, and more. All the doom-scrolling and doom-reporting that social media and news outlets create forces us to look at our lives with scarcity instead of abundance. The scarcity mindset doesn’t allow us to be generous or even generous with a little. It keeps the focus on “me” instead of the focus on “us.” What is generosity, based on what the psalmist is mentioning?

Being generous is the Hebrew word Chanan (khaw-nan), meaning to show favor or be gracious. Based on what the psalmist is saying, it’s showing favor to the poor, the needy, and orphans. In its proper form, it means to bend or stoop in kindness to an inferior.

When our decisions are guided by a generous mindset, we will naturally care for those in need around us and treat others with respect. We share our resources to benefit those who are struggling so that they can benefit like we do. God encourages us to care for the lowly. It may not be the poor, the needy, or the orphans, as the Bible often references, but it could be the homeless, the widowed, the divorced, the grieving, and more.

We can also live with great anxiety because we fear losing money. If we’re generous, we demonstrate that we have placed our trust in God – not our bank account – for our security, which can free us. When we give our resources, we are starting that we can do this because God will replenish and give us enough to have. God blesses us in many different ways, with money, friends, jobs, luxuries, and more. Often more than we truly need to live off of. We can get so comfortable with those blessings that we don’t want to lose out on them, but giving them away allows us to share the love of God with one another. There’s no focus on getting something back, but God will supply. Psalm 37:21 talks about this also.

Psalm 37:21

21          The wicked borrow and never repay, but the godly are generous givers.

You can tell a lot about a person’s character by how they handle money. The wicked steal under the guise of borrowing; that is, they ask someone for something with no intention of returning or doing something in return. The righteous person gives generously, which we learn means kindness and in favor of those in need. Prideful people focus on themselves, while righteous people look out for the welfare of others. We can always give out of the abundance that God gives us. There’s always enough in the world that God can provide for us. We can live simpler than the world teaches, for God provides enough.

Father God, thank you for the generous life you’ve given us. Your generosity is what led you to send your son to the world to die a sacrificial death for us so that we can have a right relationship with you. Your generosity is unmatched, but it’s our goal to be as generous to others as you are to us. Help us not live with a scarcity mindset but a mindset of abundance so that we can bless those around us. It’s in your name, we pray. Amen.