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Intimacy with God  /  Chapter 16: Caring for Your Neighbor  /  Discussion Questions
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Question 5
When seeing brothers in need, the intimate-with-God person does not ask for wealth to share, but prays that they receive “only what they need,” supplying needs “without his knowledge and without vanity”; what view of pride, recognition, and even “being the hero” is being confronted, and how would this change the way you do charity?
Another way to ask: Why would someone pray that others get only what they need, and help them without being noticed? How would that challenge pride, wanting credit, or needing to be the “hero” when you give?

Direct Answer The chapter confronts the desire to be seen as the provider or “hero,” urging a kind of hidden service where God supplies needs through prayer without feeding vanity. Charity becomes less about the giver’s recognition and more about the neighbor’s real need.

Support from Transcript:

  • When seeing needs, he “will not ask for wealth to share with them.”
  • Instead, he prays they receive “only what they need,” not excess that elevates the giver.
  • The method protects humility: “by his prayer, their needs are supplied without his knowledge and without vanity on his part.”
  • The intimate-with-God person becomes “the instrument of God’s goodness,” pointing attention to God rather than himself.
  • The overall portrait emphasizes purity of motive: he “trains himself by the commandments” and seeks to “please the Lord in all things.”
Discussion Follow-ups In your giving, what do you secretly want—impact, gratitude, control, or admiration? How might you build in practices of hidden generosity and prayer that reduce attention on you?

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