It is a misnomer to think that you can get rich by taking and that a giver gets poorer by giving.No. Consider agriculture. Every time you plant a seed into the ground, that seeds begins to grow and to grow, it must absorb nutrients from the ground around it. And then it matures and the person who planted reaps a harvest.
The sower is the giver. The ground is the receiver. The seed is the amount sown. The seed absorbs nutrient from the receiver even though he does not know it. And if all you do is to receive, one day you will be barren. In agriculture, if you constantly plant on the same piece of soil that soil would become barren after some years. This is why farmers practice shifting cultivation and cultivate on a new piece of land every three years.
This is the reason why those nations that receive foreign aid are getting poorer while those nations that give foreign aid are getting richer. So, if you have that receiver mentality, don’t think that you are clever. No. You will never prosper as a receiver.
No matter your level, start giving to get out of poverty. For as The Bible says in Proverbs 11:24 -“One person gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty”.
Poor people need to understand these principles more than they need money. Jesus didn’t just give the poor money. Rather he told John the Baptist’s disciples that, “The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them”- Matthew 11:5.
Reno Omokri is the pastor of the Mind of Christ Christian Center and author of Shunpiking No Shortcuts To God. He can be reached on Twitter @renoomokri
