Don’t cling to things too tightly.
As the apostle Paul encourages church members in Corinth to donate money to support the needy, he quotes from Psalm 112. The psalm lists some of the characteristics of a righteous man: obedient to God (v. 1), compassionate (v. 4), disciplined (v. 5), grounded and not easily intimidated (v. 7-8), and finally, in the passage Paul quotes, generous:
He hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor; his righteousness endureth for ever.
Psalm 112:9; see also 2 Corinthians 9:9
That’s a pretty good trade: giving away things of temporary value and in the process gaining something eternal. Paul assures them, “God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work…being enriched in every thing to all bountifulness” (2 Corinthians 9:8, 11). It sounds like God will never run out of blessings to give us, so why are we so anxious to retain the blessings we have already received?
Jesus said, “Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and thieves break through and steal” (Matthew 6:19, 3 Nephi 13:19). He clearly meant that we shouldn’t be so obsessively focused on the acquisition of wealth, but this principle also applies to the retention of wealth. Of course we need to be responsible with our possessions, but there comes a point where we are struggling desperately to hang on to things that we can’t keep—a colossal waste of time and energy—to the detriment of people who need those things right now.
King Benjamin warned us not to withhold our “substance, which doth not belong to you but to God, to whom also your life belongeth.” Then he added, “Wo be unto that man, for his substance shall perish with him” (Mosiah 4:22-23).
Today, I will look for opportunities to share with others. I will be a little more generous, remembering that God can and will continue to bless me and that eternal things are far more valuable than temporary things.