Speaker: Darlene Sala | Series: Encouraging Words

Finish this statement: “If I just had enough money, I would…”  How would you finish that sentence?  “Live in a mansion, drive a sports car, hire all my work done and travel”? Or would you say something like “Stop HIV-AIDS and relieve world hunger”? Or maybe your answer would be, “I’d share the Gospel in massive ways so that everyone in the world can know Jesus died for their sins and will forgive them.”

I’m sure that some of the things we’d do if we had the money are actually selfish, while others would make a tremendous difference in our world.

When I was a kid I heard a little ditty that stuck with me. It will never join the ranks of great poetry, but it contains a great truth. Here it is:

It’s not what you’d do with money, if riches should be your lot.

It’s what you’re already doing with the dollar-and-a-quarter you’ve got.

When you watch the evening news on TV, you feel overwhelmed with the needs of the world. But God holds us responsible only for what we can do.

My husband tells the story about two boys who were walking along the beach where an unusually high tide had washed a lot of crabs onto the shore.  If they were not soon returned to the water, they would die. One of the boys started picking up crabs and tossing them back into the ocean as fast as he could.  His friend said, “Why are you doing that? You can’t save them all.” “No,” replied the first boy, “but it makes a tremendous difference for the ones I save.”

You and I have enough money to do whatever it is that God wants us to do, and what we do makes all the difference in the world for those we help. May we do what we can so that one day we can hear the Master’s words, “Well done, good and faithful servant!” (Matthew 25:23).