The fundamental Christian teaching about giving is that we give our first and our best back to God. Why? Because He gave his first and best to us. Giving therefore is fundamentally an act of gratitude and worship of the One who loved us first. God loves us. We love him back.
Generosity is the word used in this passage. When the apostle Paul speaks of generosity to the Corinthian and Macedonian churches (see 2 Cor 8, 9) he knows that to be generous means to give beyond what one feels one is able to give. I love how author CS Lewis put it. “I’m afraid that the only safe amount of money to give to the Lord is always to give a little bit more than you can afford”.
When I give with this principle in mind I know that I am being stretched, I must make a decision between earthly expenditures and giving to God, I must trust God to make up the gap, I come face to face with my materialism, my giving cannot remain mindless, rather God is kept prominent in my mind with every check I write.
Does your giving reflect generosity defined in this way? If not can you change your definition and therefore your giving? If not, why not? Good questions like these are a tool of God to spur your spiritual growth as a fully devoted follower of Jesus Christ.
It has been many years since I began to tithe and looking back I can see that as my first big step in really BELIEVING God.It was a choice of believing God's word or believing my checkbook. His word says "...prove Me..", I believed Him for my salvation, why not everything else He said? Either He meant what He said or it was all a gigantic cosmic fraud. He has proved over and over through the years that He is bigger than the bottom line on my bank account, He is bigger than a broken down car or a worn out furnace, He is bigger than a drug addiction, He is bigger than an abusive husband, bigger than sickness. He said He would be a husband to the widow and a father to the orphan, He is so much more. He is faithful beyond anything I could ever imagine.It all became real for me when He proved Himself to be bigger than my finances and my fears.God loveth a cheerful giver, my heart dances as I write a check that goes beyond my tithe.
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