I’m sure you’ve heard and read about how we are supposed to be giving people. While we may
accept and agree with that, many of us have an inner dialogue that occurs when God asks us to give
something. We wonder why God is asking us to give, especially if we don’t have much to begin
with. Can’t God ask someone who has more money?
Christ has taught us that we cannot love both God and wealth. Our hearts will always be focused
first on our riches. He wants us be faithful stewards of our time, our talents, and our money so
that our treasure is in heaven and our giving pleases God. Giving, sacrificial giving to be more
specific, can be a hard, especially when we find ourselves in tough financial times. Why does God
want us to give when it seems like we are fighting to cover our expenses at every turn? Or when we
finally have a little extra after going through some lean times? Why does God seem to value our
giving more when we have less to give (Mark 12:41-44)? Our giving changes us. When we give, we
are obeying God and doing what is uncomfortable, which helps us grow and be who God has called
us to be. Abraham was willing to give his only son after God asked him to, and I believe that
experience helped prepare him to be the man of faith that he was. God can do so much more
through a wise, giving, mature person than a person who is overly concerned with possessions of
this world. Among the talents God entrusts to us is the ability to make money. But that phrase
contributes to the misconception that we have somehow made our money ourselves. Deuteronomy
warns the Israelites against making the claim “My power and the strength of my hands have
produced this wealth for me” (v. 17). This same danger threatens any established and prosperous
society including our own! What is the antidote? Again, it’s a vision of ourselves as stewards, this
time of treasures. Since God gives us the ability to produce wealth, it follows that what we have is a
trust from our Lord and Maker. Deuteronomy connects forgetting our stewardship of treasures
with forgetting God. Where the one happens, the other is sure to follow. But the reverse is also
true. When we remember who we are as God’s stewards, we remember that our wealth is a
trust—on loan—from the Lord.
Giving our tithes (10%) at all times and offerings in all places, is very meet, right and our bounden
duty to give thanks unto the Lord; it also reflects a grateful heart that wants to give back to God a
portion of what He has given us; in reality, what is already His. This is our opportunity to show
God that He is first in our lives. The Bible says, the purpose of tithing is to teach you always to
put God first in your lives (Deuteronomy 14:23). Tithing is a reminder that God is the supplier of
everything we have. It is also God’s personal invitation to an outpouring of his blessing in our life.
A thankful heart will not come to God bearing a gift which cost him nothing. King David replied to
Araunah “No! but I will buy it of thee at a price; I will not offer burnt offerings unto the Lord of
that which cost me nothing.” (2 Samuel 24:10-24) If it is of no value to you, it will not be received
nor blessed of God. When the Apostle Paul taught the early church the grace of giving (2 Cor. 8:7-9),
he referred to the gift of Christ for us– Christ gave himself.