I love to give. I can’t say it any plainer than that. I find great joy in giving – money, gifts, time, whatever I can – to minister to people, to bring them closer to Christ. Just ask my husband – I get so excited when I buy him gifts that sometimes I give them way before the occasion the gifts are for! I get too excited and simply can’t contain myself; I want to see his reaction, want to bless him, and give them early! :-D It’s just part of how I’m wired, I guess, how I trust God, how I live. For that reason, reading “The Treasure Principle” by Randy Alcorn, a book about giving extravagantly to the Lord who gave so extraordinarily to us – to me, reading it is a joy, a fun and creative challenge to give more, rather than a threat. It’s exciting rather than scary, stretching of course, but not impossible. Yet I realize for some people, this is not the case. Some people have not been taught to give lavishly and freely, to excitedly give more than makes sense, trusting God to honor their faithfulness and stretch the rest of their income to meet their needs – or to simply teach them to live with less so that the work of God can continue changing lives, changing eternity. So, if you are one of those people, today I’m writing for you. Today I’m going to share some of the reasons I give a lot, from the top of the budget, not from the leftovers. I’m going to share with you why I love to give so much, and I’m going to use this book to help you understand. J
I give (to my church, to missions, and to everyone I can) because:
1. God told me to. Giving, in many ways, is a matter of basic obedience. The Bible tells us over and over again to give. In Proverbs 3:9-10, in the LB, it says, “Honor the Lord by giving Him the first part of all your income, and he will fill your barns with wheat and barley and overflow your wine vats with the finest wines.” Malachi 3:10, as another example, says, “Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so that there will be food enough in my Temple; if you do, I will open up the windows of Heaven for you and pour out a blessing so great you won’t have room enough to take it in!” Notice God’s intent is not to rob you of blessings, but to open us up to receive more from Him. His heart towards us is good, and we should trust Him. Therefore, because I trust God’s heart towards me, I’m willing to obey Him and give lavishly – ten percent (as the Bible instructs us to give the first ten percent of our earnings) and then above and beyond that (because the Bible talks repeatedly about tithes and offerings; if a tithe is ten percent, the offering must be anything beyond the ten percent). If you resist the idea of the tithe, a mere 10% of your income, let me encourage you with a quote from Randy Alcorn’s book, where he writes, “I’ve had the privilege of interviewing many givers. In the vast majority of cases, they mention tithing as the practice that first stretched them to give more. They tithed and then watched God provide. They saw their hearts move deeper into His kingdom. Now, years later, they’re giving 60, 80, or even 95 percent of their incomes” (p. 65)! Furthermore, I give because of verses like Proverbs 10:16, in the LB, which says that the “good man’s earnings advance the cause of righteousness …” and Proverbs 11:24-25, which says, “It is possible to give away and become richer! It is also possible to hold on too tightly and lose everything.” Proverbs 21:26 says a lazy man is “greedy to get, while the godly love to give.” I don’t know about you, but I want to live my life to be considered godly in the eyes of the Lord, not the eyes of people. I want my earnings to advance the cause of Christ, to glorify Christ. I don’t want to work forty-plus hours a week to simply accumulate more stuff, simply because it’s expected I will, day in and day out for no other purpose. I want to work to give! I want to work so that I can change eternity with my gifts to those around me! And it starts with being obedient. If you’re just throwing a crumpled up dollar or a few quarters in the offering plate each Sunday, I want to challenge you to be obedient: give at least ten percent to the Kingdom of God. Remember, Jesus said in John 14:15, “If you love me, you will do as I command” (CEV).
2. Giving enriches my relationship with God. Alcorn writes on pages 32-33 of his book that, “There have been days when I’ve lost focus, and then a need arises and God leads me to give. Suddenly I’m infused with energy, purpose and joy. I feel God’s pleasure … Before anything else, giving is an act of worship …” Do you know what that word “worship” means, according to the 1828 Webster’s Dictionary? Webster defines “worship” in the verb tense (as in “I am going to worship God with my giving) as, “To adore; to pay divine honors to; to reverence with supreme respect and veneration; to honor with extravagant love and extreme submission.” To give to causes that further the Gospel is to honor God with extravagant love and extreme submission. To submit to give him more than 10% of all the money you make – is to worship Him. Giving is an act of worship that will please God’s heart and draw you into deeper fellowship with Him because you are offering Him greater love.
3. Giving provides me greater freedom. On page 34, Alcorn explains it this way:
“Another benefit of giving is freedom. It’s a matter of basic physics. The greater the mass, the greater the hold that mass exerts. The more things we own – the greater their total mass – the more they grip us, setting us in orbit around them. Finally, like a black hole, they suck us in. Giving changes all that. It breaks us out of orbit around our possessions. We escape their gravity, entering a new orbit around our treasures in heaven.”
I don’t think I can say it any plainer than that. I want my life to be in orbit around the things of God, around what pleases God and brings Him the most joy – therefore I give what I have away, give it to Him, so that I can live in the freedom His Spirit brings.
4. Giving changes eternity. “Giving,” Alcorn writes on page 41, “is a giant lever positioned on the fulcrum of this world, allowing us to move mountains in the next world. Because we give, eternity will be different – for others and for us.” I mean, think about it; it’s simple really. If we give to Gospel for Asia, for example, we could be saving countless lives on this earth – through GFA’s leprosy ministry, through mosquito nets and farm animals and clean water wells and other vitally important things GFA provides – which therefore, makes people more receptive to the Gospel when it is preached to them by GFA staff (because they’ve seen God’s love save their physical lives already). Supporting a missionary through GFA, also changes eternity! For less than $40 a month, you can support a missionary in Asia, providing them with all they need to live – food, shelter, clothes, etc. – so that they can focus on sharing the Gospel with other people, winning people to Christ – which ABSOLUTELY changes eternity! Or, let’s take another mission organization. Giving to Wycliffe Bible Translators changes eternity because it provides Bible translation for people who have never had the Bible in their own language before, allowing them to read and hear the Gospel in their heart language and be changed by it. Giving to Straight Ahead Ministries in Massachusetts changes eternity because it’s rescuing kids from the gangs, turning them to Christ, equipping them to minister to others. Giving is a powerful tool! It enriches eternity, adds to the multitudes who will be there. It’s exciting to think that a few dollars we could have wasted on ourselves, on getting our hair dyed or buying the latest trinkets we don’t really need, can save lives physically and spiritually around the globe! Don’t you think?
5. Giving makes my heart more invested in the Kingdom. “Jesus said, ‘Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also’ (Matt. 6:21) … As surely as the compass needle follows north, your heart will follow your treasure. Money leads; hearts follow. I’ve heard people say, ‘I want more of a heart for missions.’ I always respond, ‘Jesus tells you exactly how to get it. Put your money in missions – and in your church and the poor – and your heart will follow” (Treasure Principle, p. 43-44). Giving teaches me to be more concerned about the things of God. It refocuses my attention on what is most important. It teaches me to live with less if it means saving the lives and souls of other people. It truly does give me more of a heart for the Kingdom of God – and giving will do exactly the same thing for you. Giving, when it truly gets your heart, will have you evaluating jobs, houses, frivolous expenditures, food budgets – and everything else related to your money! – with an eye for how much it will allow you to give. It adds an eternal dimension to my forty-hour work week and is thrilling to me.
6. Giving brings me joy and pleases God. As you can tell, I’m really serious when I say that giving really excites me. But 2 Corinthians 9:7 says that it pleases God’s heart too! Look, it says, “Each of you should give as you have decided in your heart to give. You should not be sad when you give, and you should not give because you feel forced to give. God loves the person who gives happily (NCV).” The Bible in Basic English says it this way: “for God takes pleasure in a ready giver.” If your heart is to please God, not just grudgingly obey Him, if your relationship with God is so full of love and trust that your heart’s desire is to make Him happy – then give joyfully! It will bless and excite your heart and His! :D
7. Giving causes others to thank God and praise Him. Check this out: 2 Corinthians 9:12, in the CEV, says, “What you are doing [when you give] is much more than a service that supplies God’s people with what they need. It is something that will make many others thank God.” The Weymouth New Testament says that our giving “is also rich in its results and awakens a chorus of thanksgiving to God.” When we give our money to minister to the poor, the leprous, those trapped in gangs and prostitution, when we give generously for the sake of the Gospel, everyone who sees it will be compelled to thank God for it, to recognize that there is something different about us Christians. They will see our faithfulness, our sacrifice, our integrity (putting our money where our mouth is) – and will thank God for the difference we are making. They will give Him the glory and the honor He so deserves. Want to glorify God? Give! Give abundantly! Give sacrificially! Learn to live without Cable TV and gourmet meals and constant eating out and name brand clothes – or whatever else is eating up the majority of your income – and give more! God will be glorified through your gifts!
8. Giving is a proof of my faith. Now, go on to verse 13 in 2 Corinthians 9. In the NCV, it says, “[Giving] is a proof of your faith. Many people will praise God because you obey the Good News of Christ – the gospel you say you believe – and because you freely share with them and with all others.” It’s how we live what we preach. The Gospel we preach is that God so loved the world that He gave, that He came to heal the sick, to free the oppressed, to sacrifice so that they could live … and thus, our lives should be about the same things. When we give, we’re aligning ourselves with God’s divine purposes. We are making it plain that we truly believe what we say we believe. Giving is one of the fruits of a changed life.
9. Giving provides for God’s servants who are called to full-time ministry. We’ve seen already in 2 Corinthians 9:12 that radical giving “supplies God’s people with what they need,” but Malachi 3:10 also talks addresses this subject. In this commandment to tithe (10% of all our income), God says, “Bring to the storehouse a full tenth of what you earn so that there will be food in my house.” One of the purposes of giving is to provide for those who are ministering to the lost, to provide for our pastors (for our tithes are always supposed to go to our home church) and for missionaries on the field (any additional giving we do). In 1 Corinthians 9:9-10, 14, in the Living Bible, God instructs us through Paul by saying that, “in the law God gave Moses he said that you must not put a muzzle on an ox to keep it from eating when it is treading out the wheat. Do you suppose God was thinking only about oxen when he said this? Wasn’t he also thinking about us? Of course he was. He said this to show us that Christian workers should be paid by those they help. Those who do the plowing and threshing should expect some share of the harvest … in the same way the Lord has given orders that those who preach the Gospel should be supported by those who accept it.” You accept the Gospel, right? So do I. Therefore I give to support those who preach the Gospel, those who are ministering the Gospel and sharing it with others, discipling them and training them up, so that they can focus on the work God has called them to do without worrying about how their daily needs will be met.
10. Giving connects me to the world, to the lost and hurting I can’t go and minister to myself right now. Right now, at this stage in my life, I am unable to go and minister in all the places I would like to. With student loan debt and with my husband’s continuing education, I simply cannot pick up and go as freely as I would like to, to carry the Gospel to the ends of the earth. Am I doing my part here, witnessing and inviting people to church? Absolutely. But giving allows me to be involved in ministry in other parts of the world at the same time, even when I cannot go myself. Giving ties me to places around the world that I am passionate about – places like Lithuania and Japan and Fiji and Kosovo. It allows me to share the Gospel in these places through the missionaries I’m sending … and that’s exciting.
So there you have it – ten reasons I give. Is this all of them? No. But it gives you an idea of why I give. And maybe now, after reading through these, you’re feeling compelled to give more. Where do you start? In prayer. Begin praying about a percentage of your income that you’d like to give, a percentage that makes you a little uncomfortable (that’s the faith part of giving), and when you and God have it settled, commit to budget that out of everything you make. Give the first at least ten percent to your home church – and give the rest away to other ministries. Not sure where to invest your money for the Kingdom of God? There are a few things to consider. Make sure that what you’re giving has some eternal value – don’t just give to meet physical needs, though that’s important too. Be sure that the ministries you support are meeting real needs and sharing the Life-giving power of the Word of God. Next, consider what you are passionate about. Where are you most drawn to in the world? Is there a particular group of people you have a particular burden for – orphans, prostitutes, gang members, the poverty-stricken? Find ministries that will give to those people in the places you’re most passionate about reaching. But, if you need some specifics about good ministries to give into – I’ll help you. Here are the links to some of my favorite ministries:
Or (personally, I'd rather say and - I think we should both give monetarily to established ministries and do our own ministry to those around us), start a “ministry” of your own in your community. Find non-profits in your community that are reaching out to the underprivileged – domestic violence shelters, after school programs for at-risk kids, crisis pregnancy centers, juvenile detention centers/jails/prisons, drug rehabs, homeless shelters, crisis shelter services for kids in the foster care system, etc.. Find out what they need most – blankets, hygiene products, etc. – and begin collecting them (along with Bibles and Christian resources to share the Gospel with them and add an eternal dimension to the work you’re doing). Commit to spending yourself for the sake of these people’s salvation. Make a difference with the way you live. Give yourself and your finances for the sake of the Gospel. For the sake of the thousands of people around the World who have yet to come to know Christ.
Remember:
“Unbelievers have no second chance to relive their lives, this time choosing Christ. But Christians also get no second chance to live life over, this time doing more to help the needy and invest in God’s kingdom. We have one brief opportunity – a lifetime on earth – to use our resources to make a difference.” ~ Randy Alcorn, The Treasure Principle, p. 80
Use your one brief opportunity wisely, my friends …
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