Haggai 1:9

Stingy souls limit their contributions to the ministry and missionary operations, and call such saving good financial management; they little realize that they are thus impoverishing themselves. Their excuse is that they must care for their own families, and they forget that neglecting the house of God is the sure way to bring ruin upon their own households.

Our God has a method in His providence by which He can make our endeavors succeed beyond our expectations, or can frustrate our plans, leading to our confusion and dismay. With a turn of His hand, He can steer our vessel into a profitable channel or run it aground in poverty and bankruptcy.

It is the teaching of Scripture that the Lord enriches the generous and leaves the miserly to find out that withholding tendeth to poverty. From extensive observation, I have noticed that the most generous Christians of my acquaintance have always been the happiest and, almost invariably, the most prosperous.

I have seen the generous giver rise to wealth of which he never dreamed; and I have just as often seen the mean, ungenerous person descend to poverty by the very stinginess by which he thought to become rich. Men trust good stewards with larger and larger sums, and so it frequently is with the Lord; He gives by cartloads to those who give by bushels.

Where wealth is not bestowed, the Lord makes a little go a long way through the contentment that the sanctified heart feels in a portion, the tithe of which has been dedicated to the Lord.

Selfishness looks first to its own interests, but godliness seeks first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Yet, in the long run, selfishness is loss, and godliness is great gain.

It takes faith to act towards our God with an open hand, but surely He deserves it from us; and all that we can do is a very poor acknowledgment of our amazing indebtedness to His goodness.