Status Updates From God and Money: How We Disco...

Being generous out of true empathy offers to others the dignity and respect they deserve; being generous, out of pity, introduces a hierarchical, transactional nature to the relationship, even if done unintentionally 1 Corinthians 9:19–23

Focusing upward (on those with more money) causes us to underestimate the need to be generous. The relative wealth of our local context blinds us to the tremendous needs of those outside our local context.

…pur role in counseling fellow believers in times they may be struggling … “you must model faithfulness, call our faithlessness, and pray for them. But you’re not responsible for changing them. You can’t take over.”

Offering gifts to God while we have unrepentant sin in our lives actually dishonors him (Matt 5:24, Luke 11:42). He wants us to be generous, but only for the right reasons — to honor Him and to serve others

Jesus seems to encourage mindfulness around this issue of effectiveness (Mark 6:4, Matt 10:14). Implicitly, he encouraged maximizing the return in invested time in ministry, by giving more time to places where the Gospel was accepted