I don’t believe in something so cynical and trite as “God helps those who help themselves.” 潮州音樂 is a poor way to live, a poor way to lukewarmly follow the Lord. But, for the layman, is there an alternative to either putting one’s own trust in the bank’s coffers or asking for ravens to come and for college tuition to drop from the sky (not that there is a lesser demand for laypeople than for clergy)?

But how much faith is faith of obedience and how much is a counterfeit faith that breeds irresponsibility? All I know is that to spend $40K or more on myself is bad stewardship: if I don’t need so much now, neither will I need so much later in proportion to living expenses. In any case, all of it is from God and to God.

There is no true keeping, of that I’m sure. All will be spent, invested and saved for some consecrated purpose or for something not in faith, which is sin. But giving to the level of inconvenience, of need, of destitution, how much? If I’m comfortable, it’s probably too much, that much is clear. I’m convinced I must give enough to feel the need to rely on Him for provision.

All the while, no institution cares how much I actually live on as long as they can see how much I make. There’s Elijah, and then there’s Proverbs. What to make of it? For God is one and unchanging, and so good, being entirely of Him and Him alone, must also be one.

Offhandedly and lazily using the word “balance” is counter-productive. It leads to complacence and worldly thinking. There is the wise, and there is the good. God tells us in Scripture that these two are one and the same, for secular wisdom divorced from God’s character is evil.

So we can say it was wise for Peter, receiving Jesus’ command to go onto the water, to have started walking on the water, looking at Jesus in faith. I am equally loath to call Abraham naive when he obeyed God’s command to sacrifice Isaac on Mt. Moriah.

In faith I can believe that it is more blessed to give than to receive (Acts 20.35). As for everything else, there are so many different things Scripture says. Will God’s will in this kind of complexity ever be clear? Not before many more steps of faith than I have seen, heard or known.

“For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”