Why give back to God? When? How much?
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 willnot 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
