Rich in Every Way
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was
rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty
might become rich. (2 Corinthians 8:9)
Eddie Ogan is a grandmother from Colville, Washington. She
wrote in a denominational newsletter about an experience when
she was 14 years old as she and two sisters were living with their
widowed mom in 1946:
“A month before Easter, the pastor of our church announced that
a special Easter offering would be taken to help a poor family. He
asked everyone to save and give sacrificially. When we got home,
we talked about what we could do. We decided to buy 50 pounds
of potatoes and live on them for a month. This would allow us to
save $20 of our grocery money for the offering.
“Then we thought that if we kept our electric lights turned out
as much as possible and didn’t listen to the radio, we’d save money
on that month’s electric bill. [My sister] Darlene got as many
house and yard cleaning jobs as possible, and both of us babysat
for everyone we could. . . .
“That month was one of the best of our lives. Every day we
counted the money to see how much we had saved. . . . Every Sunday
the pastor had reminded everyone to save for the sacrificial offering.
The day before Easter, [my sister] Ocy and I walked to the grocery
store and got the manager to give us three crisp $20 bills and one
$10 bill for all our change. . . . We could hardly wait to get to church!
“When the sacrificial offering was taken, we were sitting on
the second row from the front. Mom put in the $10 bill, and each
of us girls put in a $20. As we walked home after church, we sang
all the way. At lunch Mom had a surprise for us. She had bought a
dozen eggs, and we had boiled Easter eggs with our fried potatoes!
“Late that afternoon the minister drove up in his car. Mom went
to the door, talked with him for a moment, and then came back with
an envelope in her hand. We asked what it was, but she didn’t say
a word. She opened the envelope and out fell a bunch of money.
There were three crisp $20 bills, one $10 bill and seventeen $1 bills.
Mom put the money back in the envelope. We didn’t talk, just sat
and stared at the floor. We had gone from feeling like millionaires
to feeling [poor].
“. . . All that week, we girls went to school and came home, and
no one talked much. Finally on Saturday, Mom asked us what we
wanted to do with the money. What did poor people do with money?
We didn’t know. We’d never known we were poor.
“. . . At church [that Sunday] we had a missionary speaker. He
talked about how churches in Africa made buildings out of sundried
bricks, but they need money to buy roofs. He said $100 would
put a roof on a church. The minister said, ‘Can’t we all sacrifice to
help these poor people?’
“We looked at each other and smiled for the first time in a week.
Mom reached into her purse and pulled out the envelope. She
passed it to Darlene. Darlene gave it to me, and I handed it to Ocy.
Ocy put it in the offering plate. When the offering was counted, the
minister announced that it was a little over $100. The missionary
was excited. He hadn’t expected such a large offering from our small
church. He said, ‘You must have some rich people in this church.’
“Suddenly it struck us! We had given $87 of that ‘little over $100.’
We were the rich family in the church! Hadn’t the missionary said
so? From that day on I’ve never been poor again.”
—Story is taken from “The Rich Family in Our Church”
(bible.org/rich-family-our-church)
It’s a powerful story of being poor, yet having everything. Giving
changes your perspective on life. This dear family followed in the
steps of their Lord Jesus by giving sacrificially toward the needs
of others. In the process, they became rich in every way.
Prayer Points
• Ask the Lord to help you experience the grace of Jesus every day.
• Pray that the Lord will show you how to be rich by embracing
the poverty of Jesus.
My Prayer
Lord, You have poured Your grace out upon us. Thank You! Show
us, please, how You laid aside the riches of heaven for the poverty
of life on earth. We lay down our wealth before You and embrace
Your poverty. We know Lord, in doing this, we will again be made
rich by You.
Excerpted from “The Giving Church” by Dave Butts, and is used by permission of PrayerShop Publishing.