A cheerful giver
July 17, 2005
This morning I was in prayer and communion with the Lord. As always I was asking Him to open His word to my mind and feed me with His precious Word. Today the Lord lead me to where Paul tells us in "2 Cor. 9:7 …For the Lord loves a cheerful giver." This brought to mind some very sad facts that I was reading on www.emptytomb.org "Giving has not kept up with income, however. Protestant denominations have published data on an ongoing basis throughout the century. In 1916, Protestants were giving 2.9% of their incomes to their churches. In 1933, the depth of the Great Depression, it was 3.2%. In 1955, just after affluence began spreading through our culture, it was still 3.2%. By 2002, when Americans were over 480% richer, after taxes and inflation, than in the Great Depression, Protestants were giving 2.6% of their incomes to their churches. " When I read these figures I wonder just how many cheerful givers there are in the Christian Church today. The Lord showed Mary and I how important it is to give back to the Lord. The attitude every Christian should have is that "EVERYTHING" we have has been given to us by the Lord. Do we feel that Jesus controls our lives or do we feel we are in control?
If we look at Malachi 3:8-12 (KJV) 8Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. 9Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. 10Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. 11And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the LORD of hosts. 12And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the LORD of hosts. 13Your words have been stout against me, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, What have we spoken so much against thee? Here we see that the Lord says that there is a curse if we are not cheerful givers. But as always with our Lord and Savior there is a blessing for being a cheerful giver. I have personally learned that I can not out give my Lord. I have found that the best years financially in Mary's and my lives has been when we tried to out give the Lord. Oh yes I am still human and sometimes old slue foot tells me I cannot afford to give my tithe or love gift is month. I can tell you with all authority that the few times I have been stupid enough, yes stupid, to let my EIB (educated idot box, your brain) listen to old slue foot I regretted it.
God does not force us to give back part of what He has given us, He lets us. How much you give to the Lord is directly related to how much you love the Lord. Ouch! that hurts, but it is the truth! How can we expect the Lord to trust us with more when we cannot share what we have. You can take this directly to your spiritual bank. The Lord only gives you as much as He can trust you with. If the little you have you hoard and keep to yourself, our Father cannot trust you with more. Paul says is Gal. 6:7 Do not be deceived (this means to go astray) God is not mocked ( the Greek here means to turn you nose up to of be a snob to), what you sow is what you reap. If we want God to bless us we must be loving enough to bless the Lord.
We make the mistake many times and think that when the Bible talks about us giving to the Lord it is only our money or possessions. It is everything, our time, our thoughts, our praises, our goods, our monies, everything we have. So, remember with what measure we sow into the kingdom of God is with what measure we will receive.
Remember, where and how you give is up to you. I am not suggesting in anyway you have to give to His Will Ministry. That is between you and the Lord. I just feel with all my heart that as Christians we should be ashamed of the above fact that we give 2.6% of our incomes to the Lord.