Here are the words of Jackson Nerrickson, Trinity Global Development staff member:
GIVING
The message of giving is among the most preached messages
all over the world both in churches and on the streets. Both in the Old Testament and New
Testament, there is a call of high standard of giving for the believers. In
many sermons that I have attended, I have heard things like; give to receive
your healing, give in order to receive your blessing, God will punish you if
you don’t give, that God needs your money.
The Old Testament presents us with the first reason to
honor God with our gifts, which is that as our Creator He is the Sovereign Lord
of all creation, a living being worthy of the highest honor. The New Testament
introduces another, gratitude for the gift of Christ at Calvary. “In this is
love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and gave His Son to be the conciliation
for our sins” (I John 4:10). “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, that you through His
poverty might become rich . . .God loves us so much that he sent his only son
to die on the cross for our sins (John 3:16). In the bible, I have found a
scripture that states that Jesus redeemed us from the curse of the law. Thanks
be to God for His indescribable gift!” (2 Corinthians 8:9, 9:15) The love of
God which stems from a deep appreciation of His nature and gratitude for His
grace stimulates Christians to give joyfully and sacrificially (II Corinthians
8:1-5, 9:7, Mark 12:41-44).
God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:7).Anyone
who understands the grace of God over our life should be able to give
cheerfully knowing that they are fulfilling the grace of God over somebody’s
life. Most Christians
don’t understand that it is not just giving that pleases the lord but giving
cheerfully.Christians are to give as they have “purposed in their heart, not
grudgingly or reluctantly” (II Cor. 9:7). If we are convinced this is what God
wants to give through us, there will be an eager willingness. It will not be
like “pulling teeth” or extracting funds. You do not have to give! It is a choice. You certainly do not have to
give in order to be a Christian; that would be a criterion of “works.” Once you
are a Christian and the great Love of Christ lives in you, then you want to
give. God wants to express His character through you. But it is still a choice,
a choice of faith.
Paul says that
our giving is “not under compulsion” (II Cor. 9:7). The root word means “to
bend the arm.” We do not give because our arm is being bent and we are being forced,
pressured or manipulated. We should not give to compete with others or to show
how good we are in giving. Christians are not encouraged to give because of
what other people would think or to safeguard their reputation. Giving for
social approval is not Christian giving. Jesus exposes such giving for social
approval in Matthew 6:2-4: “When
therefore you give alms do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do
in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be honored by men. Truly I
say to you, they have their reward in full. But when you give alms, do not let
your left hand know what your right hand is doing that your alms may be in
secret; and your Father who sees in secret will repay you.”
The more we give in service
to the Lord, the more we will get in return. In fact, the only place in the
Bible where God invites us to test Him is Malachi 3:10, where He is
talking about our offerings made unto Him: “Test
me in this, says the LORD Almighty and see if I will not throw open the
floodgates of heaven and poor out so much blessing that you will not have room
enough for it.”
The reason why most of Christians don’t enjoy the fruits of giving is
that they give with “strings attached”, they give expecting a refund from God. Our
motivation behind giving should be that of Christ, that he offered free gift of
salvation to all human race. God is not interested in the size of the gift or
prefers one type of gift over the otheror the amount of a gift is the most important
thing to God. All gifts are acceptable to
God what matters is the condition of the heart that is giving the gift. For
example, many people have argued that God accepted the gift of Abel over that
of Cain because Abel offered a sheep while Cain offered crops. I agree that we
should strive to give God the best but I think the reason here was that Abel thought about
God first and gave him a gift from his heart(Genesis 4:2 – 10).
In a certain church meeting, I was shocked when the preacher commanded
a certain woman to give and when the woman gave what she had, the pastor told
her that God expected her to give more than that. I don’t think this is true.
God does not force anyone to give. We should give out of will and love for the
Lord believing that He knows our needs and He will provide for us. The amazing thing
about loving God is that God knows who we are (1Corinthians 8:3). That
does not mean that he does not already know who we are it just means that we
will have favor with him, because of our love towards him. If we think about it
long enough we can all come up with list of people who when we are doing
something really important and do not want to be disturbed by anyone, we would
let them disturb us. It is the same way with God if you love him it changes
your relationship with him in the sense that we have a closer relationship with
him. Therefore, we should not give to God to receive anything in return,
because it is required, or to be accepted. We should always give to God because
he is our Father.
I know you are asking yourself where you will
start. It is very simple. Start by providing for your family(1 Timothy 5:8),
that neighbor who don’t have much and is straining so much. Give to the widows and the orphans (Matthew 25:35-45).
Jesus commanded the rich person to sell all what He had and give to the widows
and orphans to enter into the kingdom of God. Be faithful in giving tithe to
the church. Many brethren have weakness here, they only give tithe when they
make extra. God calls us to be faithful in the little that we have before He blesses
us with more.
I pray that almighty God will guide and speak
to our hearts about the significance of giving to His service. We need His
sufficient grace to understand what it means to be cheerful givers . I believe as we dwell in His will, He will meet
us at our different points of needs. He has promised to provide for us.The
bible tells us that He takes care of the sparrow who neither sows nor reaps nor
has barns to store it in, but yet and still God provides for them. The bible
also tells us that God takes care of the sparrow, who does not give and that we
are more precious than a sparrow to him, so therefore his provisions is not
based on giving gifts to him (Matthew 6:25-33). The simple fact that the bible
says that the rain falls on the just and the unjust tells us that even the
wicked receive sunshine and rain (Matthew 5:45)
2 Corinthians 9:10-11
Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food
will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest
of your righteousness. You will be made rich in every way so that you can be
generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in
thanksgiving to God.
May Jesus Christ, the greatest giver
the world has ever known show you the best way to do it. God bless you.
