She gives from the top and she has never once been left with less.
Clothes she was not wearing. Food that was going to go off. The old chairs when the new ones came. Money, yes, but the amount that was already sitting there doing nothing.
And that is not nothing, and I am not about to spend an article scolding a generous woman.
But listen for what has never happened.
She has never eaten a smaller dinner because somebody else ate. She has never worn the older coat. She has never once, in nine years of giving, gone short of a single thing.
Because everything that has gone out of that house has gone out of the surplus, and the surplus is by definition the part she was not using.
There is a very particular safety in that, and it is invisible from outside, and it means her generosity has never touched her life. It has been an operation conducted on the spare room.
She is forty-three. She has given a great deal. She has never divided anything.
So let me ask you.
When did giving last leave you with less?
Share is a word about dividing
Isaiah is in the middle of a passage about the difference between religion that God does not want and religion He does, and when he gets to the practical list he uses a verb that is worth slowing down over.
Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter, when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?Isaiah 58:7
Share your food.
Not distribute food. Not hand food out. Share is a word about taking a thing that was yours and dividing it, which means the portion you end up with is smaller than the portion you started with.
Isaiah 58 uses a verb about dividing your own meal rather than dispensing a surplus, and the Spirit who gave that word chose sharing over giving, so nine years of generosity that has never left you short has never once been the thing the verse described.
Now, darling, let me be honest with you and not clever.
Nobody is asking you to become poor. That is not the sermon, it is not in the text, and a woman who impoverishes herself in a week is no use to anybody by the following Thursday.
And I am not asking you for money. Not here, not anywhere on this site, not ever.
What I am pointing at is a quality, not a quantity. Something you were going to use. Something whose absence you will notice.
Isaiah 58 puts shelter and clothing beside the food as things taken from the household rather than from a store, and the Spirit was in that domestic list, which means the spare room your generosity has been confined to was never where any of this was meant to happen.
And do not miss the last clause, because it is aimed at the exact instinct that keeps a person safe.
Not to turn away from your own flesh and blood. Even the proximity is uncomfortable. The list ends with people who are close enough to be embarrassing.
Isaiah 58 ends the whole list on somebody in your own family rather than on a distant category, and the Spirit put that there last, so keeping your giving at a distance from your own life has never once been the shape of it.
Now here is the move, and you will feel this one, which is how you will know it happened.
Give something you were going to use. Isaiah 58 says share rather than distribute, and the Spirit chose a word about dividing your own portion, so you are being asked for a quality and never for a quantity.
Not the spare. Not the surplus. Not the coat in the back of the wardrobe. The thing you had planned for, that you will miss, in an ordinary and survivable way.
The dinner you were going to eat. The Saturday you had set aside. The hour you were saving.
Isaiah 58 says share your food, which is a dividing of your own portion, and the Spirit chose that verb rather than a word about distributing, so ending up with less has never once been generosity gone wrong.
Nine years out of the spare room. One divided portion.
Declare this over yourself
Say these where you can hear yourself. Know what holds them up. This authority is not yours by nature, it is Christ's, and in Christ it has been given to you, so you speak as one representing the King. And you speak under His will, never over it. However He answers, and in whatever way He comes, the outcome is His.
- Spare, you are all I have ever given and share is a verb about my own portion. Isaiah 58 says share your food with the hungry, and sharing leaves the one who shares with less than they began with.
- Safety of an operation conducted entirely on the spare room, you have kept nine years of real generosity from ever touching my life, and in the name of Jesus you are over. The Spirit chose a word about dividing rather than a word about dispensing.
- Lord, Isaiah 58 ends that list on my own flesh and blood, close enough to be uncomfortable. I am giving something this week that I was actually going to use, and I will notice it is gone and that is how I will know.
Isaiah 58:7
This message is free, and always will be. There is nothing to unlock, nothing to subscribe to, and nothing you owe for having received it.
