S) "10 Nor shall you glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the needy and for the stranger. I am the Lord your God."
Leviticus 19:10 (NASB)
O) I used to be in a band with two of my brothers. Our practice space was in this network of small studios beneath some bars in Seattle. When we'd go down to play, I'd find loose change in the ground all of the time. Pennies, nickels, and dimes (never quarters, though, because of the pinball machines in the hall by the bathrooms. My brothers would walk right over the fallen coins and I'd stop, bend down and pick them up, and I started asking the phrase, "What're you, rich?" This was a natural extension o having grown up poor. It seemed ludicrous to pass up, what was literally, free money. It didn't matter how small it was, neither did it matter that I myself was not, in fact, poor . Like the needy and the stranger in the verse above, though, I was picking up someone else's scraps, leftovers, discards.
A) A couple days ago, I wrote about the relative nature of the word, poor. For years, I was carrying the habits of a person who was financially destitute. I was spiritually poor, but I had no real understanding of that. In my head, though, this poor mentality affected the way I bought groceries, the way I ate food, the way I picked up change, the way I worried. Interestingly, it never translated to better spending habits (or saving habits, for that matter), but instead it was simply a lingering way that I felt unworthy and inadequate. Years later, after serving God and paying tithes faithfully for several years, I was startled to learn something. According to the US Government, I was considered impoverished. It's funny, because, while I wasn't wealthy or well-off or even "comfortable," we were doing okay. God always provided easily. Yet, I was still struck with this lingering feeling of poverty. That's when I decided on which side of this verse I was going to be. I harvest first-fruits for The LORD, right? Then I am the worker, not the gleaner.
P) Father, thank You for bringing me through poverty. Thank You for teaching me, in grace, how to trust You when things are uncertain, how to be thankful when I have little. I don't want to look at my finances in desperation, though, God. Help me to realize that You provide abundantly and I don't need to worry about getting "every last grape" off the "vine." Let me be satisfied with the work You put before me, trusting in Your provision as Jehovah Jireh. I may not be blessed with as much as some, but neither am I destitute or begging. Let me lift my eyes to remember which part of the vineyard I work. In Jesus's name I pray. Amen.
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