Does God Allow His Children to Be Poor?

Elizabeth Elliot Devotional

Title: Does God Allow His Children to Be Poor?

God allows both Christians and non-Christians to
experience every form of suffering known to the
human race, just as He allows His blessings to
fall on both. Poverty, like other forms of
suffering, is relative, as Lars and I were
reminded while we were in India. Our country's
definition of the "poverty level" would mean
unimaginable affluence to the girls we saw
working next to our hotel. For nine hours a day
they carried wet concrete in wooden basins on
their heads, pouring it into the forms for the
foundation of a large building. They were paid
thirty cents a day.

On my list of Scriptures which give clues to some
of God's reasons for allowing His children to
suffer is 2 Corinthians 8:2: "Somehow, in most
difficult circumstances, their joy and the fact
of being down to their last penny themselves,
produced a magnificent concern for other people"
(PHILLIPS). It was the Macedonian churches that
Paul was talking about, living proof that it is
not poverty or riches that determine generosity,
and sometimes those who suffer the most
financially are the ones most ready to share what
they have. "They simply begged us to accept their
gifts and so let them share the honors of
supporting their brothers in Christ" (v. 4).

Money holds terrible power when it is loved. It
can blind us, shackle us, fill us with anxiety
and fear, torment our days and nights with
misery, wear us out with chasing it. The
Macedonian Christians, possessing little of it,
accepted their lot with faith and trust. Their
eyes were opened to see past their own misery.
They saw what mattered far more than a bank
account, and, out of "magnificent concern,"
contributed to the needs of their brothers.

If through losing what this world prizes we are
enabled to gain what it despises--treasure in
heaven, invisible and incorruptible--isn't it
worth any kind of suffering? What is it worth to
us to learn a little bit more of what the Cross
means--life out of death, the transformation of
earth's losses and heartbreaks and tragedies?

Poverty has not been my experience, but God has
allowed in the lives of each of us some sort of
loss, the withdrawal of something we valued, in
order that we may learn to offer ourselves a
little more willingly, to allow the touch of
death on one more thing we have clutched so
tightly, and thus know fullness and freedom and
joy that much sooner. We're not naturally
inclined to love God and seek His Kingdom.
Trouble may help to incline us--that is, it may
tip us over, put some pressure on us, lean us in
the right direction.