Tag Archives: Giving

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Giving To Get In Order To Give

God Is Able To Bless You Abundantly

SYNOPSIS: What are the conditions of God’s amazing promise to abundantly bless you? 1) You are to give authentically. In other words, you are to decide; no one should coerce, guilt, or manipulate you into generosity. 2) You are to give eagerly. Give because you want to demonstrate your love with a tangible expression of devotion. 3) You are to give delightfully. Why? “For God loves a cheerful giver.” 4) You are to give expectantly. It is a God-pleasing expression of faith to expect great things of Him that prompts His generosity to you. So, when you get giving right, God takes it upon himself to make sure “that in ALL things at all times, having ALL that you need, you will abound in EVERY good work.” And remember, “People are never honored for what they received. They are honored for what they gave.” (Calvin Coolidge)

Project 52—Memorize:
2 Corinthians 9:8

“And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.”

As is usually the case with some of the great “promise verses” in the Bible, there are surrounding verses that set the conditions for fulfillment of God’s committed favor.  Such is the case here, where we are told that God will bless us at all times in every way with everything we need for life, joy, and success.

What are the conditions of such an amazing promise?  Paul has been teaching the Corinthian Christians for two whole chapters now about the ministry of giving.  Of course, God gave to us first, so our giving to him doesn’t initiate his giving.  Our giving is simply a thankful response to what he has already done, yet our liberality is also a catalyst for a continued, if not even greater flow of divine favor into our lives. Here is how Paul says it:

“Each one should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.”  (II Corinthians 9:7-8)

Paul gives some pretty clear guidelines as to how God desires for you to give in order to bless you with greater abundance:

First, you are to give authentically.  No one should tell you how to give or how much to give—not even the preacher. “You are to decide” about giving, Paul says. You need to dig way down deep and come to grips with the ministry of giving until it is a value that drives your stewardship.

Second, you are to give eagerly. Give because you really love God and want to demonstrate your love with a tangible expression of your devotion to him. Don’t do it because it will make you feel better, ease your guilt or make you look good. Don’t do it just because you feel pressured to give, “not repulsively or under convulsions,” as the little boy who misquoted the verse said. Rather, “each one should give what he has decided in his heart to give.” You are to give because it’s just the right thing to do. Give because it is the nature of love to give. Give because it is consistent with Christian character. Give from a convinced heart. If your gift doesn’t send the message of genuine desire, it won’t count as love.

Third, you are to give delightfully. Why? “For God loves a cheerful giver.”  Truly authentic and heartfelt givers will enjoy giving the gift. They don’t think of giving as a loss or a requirement or a burden, rather they think of the joy it brings and the love it communicates to the recipient. That’s what Hebrews 12:2 says about Jesus, our example of joyful generosity: “For the joy set before him, he endured the cross.” Now that was the ultimate act of joyful giving!

Fourth, you are to give expectantly. Paul teaches that when you give in a way that is pleasing to the Lord—authentically, altruistically, joyfully—God will make sure that you will always have plenty to give away:  “And God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others.”  As someone has wisely pointed out,

“Give according to your income, lest God make your income according to your giving.”

What a privilege it is to give back to God.  When we get giving right, God takes it upon himself to make sure that we will abound in every good work.

“Since much wealth too often proves a snare and an encumbrance in the Christian’s race, let him lighten the weight by ‘dispersing abroad and giving to the poor’, whereby he will both soften the pilgrimage of his fellow travelers, and speed his own way the faster.”  ~Augustus Toplady

Reflect and Apply: Offer this prayer to your Heavenly Father: “Lord, you are the Supreme Giver.  You gave your best, you gave your all, you gave yourself.  From the depth of my heart, I thank you. It is now my honor and joy to give back to you. May the sacrifice of my offerings be acceptable worship pleasing to you.”

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Giving Therapy

Give and It Will Be Given to You

SYNOPSIS: To paraphrase the great boxer, Mohammed Ali, “Giving to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.” But more than being simply what you owe, giving is, in reality, the path to receiving more. Jesus said, “Give and it shall be given to you.” The Son of God was actually revealing the self-healing properties in giving of yourself to somebody else, especially when they are worse off than you. When you are going through your own hardship, whatever that may be — sickness, loss, disappointment, depression — God’s therapy is to find those who cannot help themselves, somebody who cannot pay back your kindness, and minister His love to them, whether through your time, money, or energy. So on this Giving Tuesday, give of yourself and it will be given to you!

Project 52—Memorize:
Luke 6:38

“Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

Dr. Karl Menninger, founder of the famed psychiatric clinic in Topeka, Kansas that bears his name, was once asked, “What would you do if you thought you were going crazy?”  Without even having to think about it, he said, “I’d go out and find someone less fortunate to serve.”

There is just something so self-healing about giving yourself to somebody else—especially when they are worse off than you. When you are going through your own hardship, whatever that may be—sickness, loss, disappointment, depression—God’s therapy is to find those who cannot help themselves, somebody who cannot pay back your kindness, and minister God’s love to them, whether through your time, money or energy.

To love, serve, and bless the less fortunate is to initiate a spiritual law that we find in Acts 20:35, “And remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

When you are the conduit of God’s love and grace, and when heaven’s generosity is being poured through you to those in need, on the way through you, that same flood of love, grace and generosity will leave the Divine fingerprints throughout your own life.

Now that means breaking free of your own legitimate needs and wants in order to give to others. And that is not usually an easy thing to do. Sometimes it is you that needs to receive from another. Yet even in those conditions, God’s Word is still true: Give and it will be given to you—in abundance.

Jesus was a great example of this. In Matthew 14, King Herod had just beheaded Jesus’ cousin, John the Baptist. When Jesus heard the news, he was deeply affected with unbearable sorrow over the loss of a loved one. And he did what most of us would do: He got away from the crowd for some time alone to pour out his grief before God.

But Jesus didn’t stay there long. He didn’t make the retreat into isolation his permanent address; he didn’t accept the paralysis of grief; he didn’t allow loss to define him. Rather, as other people who were hurting for reasons different than his own found him, he allowed compassion to flow, and out of that, he began to minister to their needs.

“When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick. …give them something to eat!” (Matthew 14:13-14,16)

Jesus was setting a pattern for us, don’t you think? Not to minimize the pain that we experience from loss, but to turn it into a productive force that initiates God’s healing therapy in our own lives as we become the conduit of Divine love and grace to hurting people.

Perhaps you are licking your wounds today from a hurt, disappointment, loss or failure. If that is the case, try doing what Jesus did. See the needs of other hurting people around you and love them, serve them, give to them!  You probably won’t feel like doing it, but do it anyway. It won’t take away your own pain, but it will unleash God’s healing therapy for you.

At the end of the day, you will find that your journey through grief, pain, failure and disappointment will be a lot healthier and a whole lot more productive when you practice the therapy of giving.

“By compassion we make others’ misery our own, and so, by relieving them, we relieve ourselves also.” ~ Sir Thomas Browne

Reflect and Apply: Do you know someone in a worse off state of life than you?  Do something for them—give yourself, your time, your energy or even your resources.  You will find it to be an incredible therapy and a conduit to the grace of God that flows directly back into your own life.

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The Spirit of Abundance

Try Living Openhandedly

SYNOPSIS: We can live with a spirit of scarcity that believes and acts from the mindset that what I have is mine; that I need to protect it; that to give it away means a negative on the profit/loss sheet of my life. Or we can live the way God created us to live: from a spirit of abundance. God’s Word tells us that he is the giver of everything we have anyway, and we are to trust him with it. Trust, then, leads us to live with a loose grip on what we have; a loose grip that opens the hand and generously gives it away. Likewise, trust is convinced of God’s promise that as we live generously open-handed, he will make sure our hands are always full.

Going Deep // Focus: Deuteronomy 24:19-22

When you are harvesting your crops and forget to bring in a bundle of grain from your field, don’t go back to get it. Leave it for the foreigners, orphans, and widows. Then the Lord your God will bless you in all you do. When you beat the olives from your olive trees, don’t go over the boughs twice. Leave the remaining olives for the foreigners, orphans, and widows. When you gather the grapes in your vineyard, don’t glean the vines after they are picked. Leave the remaining grapes for the foreigners, orphans, and widows. Remember that you were slaves in the land of Egypt. That is why I am giving you this command.

One of the first social interactions we experience as human beings is in the sandbox. And the first words of that interaction go something like this: “Mine!” Then we grab our toy and clutch it tightly to our chest. From then on out, we get pretty good at being selfish, which is no surprise since we get a lot of practice at it throughout the rest of our lives. The reason for this is that being self-focused was rewired into our DNA at the fall. You see, the essence of sin is to tend to what self wants instead of what God wants. And of course, that leads to selfishness in every area. It is just the drift of the natural man. That is why David prayed,

Turn my heart toward your statutes and not toward selfish gain. (Psalm 119:36)

But there is a better way—selflessness. To be unselfish means to be God-focused and others-oriented. And to be God-focused and others-oriented requires our trust that God will supply what he calls us to give away, a mindset of abundance that is convinced there is more than enough, and the obedience of generosity that opens the hand and releases what we possess. Trust, abundance and generosity—the antithesis of sin, the polar opposite of selfishness.

We can live with a spirit of scarcity that believes and acts from the mindset that what I have is mine; that I need to protect it; that to give it away means a negative on the profit/loss sheet of my life. Or we can live the way God created us to live: from a spirit of abundance. God’s Word tells us that he is the giver of everything we have anyway, and we are to trust him with it. Trust, then, leads us to live with a loose grip on what we have; a loose grip that opens the hand and generously gives it away. Likewise, trust is convinced of God’s promise that as we live generously open-handed, he will make sure our hands are always full.

This is the cycle of abundance is the law of the universe. It is an immutable law. It says that the more we give away, the more God gives us to give away. But we have to trust God to give us more, or we will hold back what we have in fear, selfish and from an impoverished spirit of scarcity.

God was calling the Israelites to live from a spirit of abundance in Deuteronomy 24:19-22. They were to give generously and intentionally so that others would receive blessings through them as if it were from God himself, which had been what Israel had experienced during their time of need. God was now calling them to be the conduit of generosity, and the call came with a promise: “Then the Lord your God will bless you in all you do.”

That is God’s call to you and me, too. To be open-handedly, proactively, intentionally generous. And he has promised to meet our spirit of abundance with heavens abundance. Like the Israelites, he wants to make us a conduit of ridiculous generosity, so that the more we give away, the more he will give us to give away.

The spirit of abundance—it takes trust, but it is a terrific way to live.

Going Deeper With God: Find a way to be generous today—with your treasure, your talent and your time. Do it, and God will see to it that you have more than enough treasure, talent and time left over.

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Passing The Collection Plate

Giving Is An Invitation To Partnership

SYNOPSIS: Offerings didn’t originate with the preacher, but with God. Interestingly, God could have created all the resources a ministry would ever need to operate if he wanted to. He is God, the Creator, after all. Apparently, he didn’t want to. What he wanted was willing partners who would take steps of faith to sacrifice their own resources to invest in the things that mattered to him. Amazing, isn’t it? God wants you as an invested partner!

The Journey// Focus: Exodus 35:4-5, 20-23, 29

This is what the Lord has commanded: From what you have, take an offering for the Lord. Everyone who is willing is to bring to the Lord an offering… Then the whole Israelite community withdrew from Moses’ presence, and everyone who was willing and whose heart moved them came and brought an offering to the Lord for the work on the tent of meeting, for all its service, and for the sacred garments. All who were willing, men and women alike, came and brought gold jewelry of all kinds: brooches, earrings, rings and ornaments. They all presented their gold as a wave offering to the Lord. …All the Israelite men and women who were willing brought to the Lord freewill offerings for all the work the Lord through Moses had commanded them to do.

Preachers get a bad rap for taking offerings—early and often. Surveys reveal that a high percentage of the un-churched believe there will be an over-emphasis on money if they attend a church service. Even believers—some of them, anyway—clinch their wallets a little tighter when it comes to offering time. Unfortunately, some preachers and televangelists have given folks good concern about getting fleeced.

Yet there is a place in the work of God for giving people the opportunity to give of their time, talent and treasure to support and advance the work of the Kingdom. In fact, the call to give didn’t originate with the preacher, but with God. Interestingly, God could have created all the resources a ministry would ever need to operate if he wanted to. He is God, the Creator, after all. Apparently, he didn’t want to. What he wanted was willing partners who would take steps of faith to sacrifice their own resources to invest in the things that mattered to him.

And when people—you and I—are willing to give and allow God to touch our hearts, as was the case with the Israelites in this story, opportunity and generosity meet to create a miraculous giving moment. Human willingness meets with Divine enablement and the Kingdom of God is advanced in defining ways that please the heart of God and delight the hearts of the giver. What happens in the catalytic moment is what Jesus said would happen: It is better to give than receive. (Acts 20:35)

Arguably there is no more impactful way to partner with the Almighty than by joyfully, willingly and sacrificially giving to his work. It is worship—it honors God with your trust at the most costly level. And it unties his hands to bless you, the giver, with divine abundance—the giver becomes a conduit: the more you give, the more God gives you to give. Generous, joyful Kingdom givers get caught in a cycle of Divine generosity—and there is nary a more beautiful thing.

Yes, I know: I’m a preacher who just wants more money. Right? No, wrong! I just want to see God’s abundance unleashed in your life through the joy of generous giving. Just try it, and see if it doesn’t work.

Legend has it that a man was lost in the desert. He’d wandered for days and was near death from thirst. He stumbled on a dilapidated, deserted shack. An old pump was in the yard, likely useless, but he was dying, so he starting furiously pumping. All he got was squeaks and dust.

He was about to give up when he saw a jar nearby. A note was attached, and it still had a little water. It said, “Use the water in this jar to prime the pump.” He suddenly faced a decision: Drink the water in the jar and live a few more hours or put faith in the note and hope for a flow of life-giving water. Then he decided to hedge his bet, so he poured in some in, kept some back, and began to pump. All he got was just a dribble, but there was hope! So he poured in all the water and began pumping. And soon there was all the water he could want.

When he’d fully satisfied his thirst, he filled the jar back up and added to the note, “Believe me, it really works, but you’ve to give it all you’ve got!”

Going Deeper: Try it! Believe me, it really works. And if you don’t believe me, at least believe God. In his own words, he says to you, “Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.” (Malachi 3:10)

Pass

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Ridiculous Generosity

It’s More Blessed to Give Than to Receive—Really!

Your generosity includes money and material, obviously, but it’s about a mindset more than anything. It’s also about being ridiculously generous with love, encouragement, forgiveness, time and everything else you possess materially and non-materially. And one of the many benefits of being ridiculously generous with your life in all its dimensions is that it frees you up on the inside. Studies show that generosity is tied to less stress, lower depression, a better marriage and higher happiness. Bottom line: Be generous—riduculously!

The Journey: Luke 21:1-4

As Jesus looked up, he saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. “Truly I tell you,” he said, “this poor widow has put in more than all the others. All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”

Blog Disclaimer: I’m not posting this because I need your money. Neither does God—he less than me. But we both want your soul to be freer than it is. That is why you find an amazing amount of teaching in the Bible—both Old and New Testaments—on the subject of money and wealth. And Jesus—wow, did he talk about it a lot.

Including the story of the poor widow woman putting her offering into the temple treasury. Interestingly, Jesus was watching her like a hawk—which would be a faux pas of the highest order in church culture today. But without apology, he was watching her, and others, and offering a running commentary on the amounts that each giver was giving. And his conclusion was that those with much more wealth to give were nowhere near as generous as she with her pitifully small offering of two insignificant coins because she gave out of her poverty all that she had.

So why so much attention given in this particular event, and in general, why so much attention throughout the scriptures on money and material possessions? The answer is simple: God owns it all, and he wants you to be worshipful with it by giving a portion of it back to him, and generous with it toward others by sharing it. The bottom line to the Bible’s teaching on money is that we are called to be ridiculously generous with it.

Now generosity includes money and material, obviously, but it’s about a mindset more than anything. It’s also about being ridiculously generous with love, encouragement, forgiveness, time and everything else you possess materially and non-materially. And one of the many benefits of being ridiculously generous with your life in all its dimensions is that it frees you up on the inside. Studies show that generosity is tied to less stress, lower depression, a better marriage and higher happiness.

Jesus knew that way before the social psychologists came along. That’s why he said, “it’s more blessed to give than receive.” (Acts 20:35) That is why he made an example for all time of this generous widow. She got it, and she was blessed of God more than most with extreme wealth.

The Greek word for “blessed” is markarios. Not only blessed, it meant hilariously happy. Hopefully she knew that in this life, but for sure, the poor widow is hilarious happy for all eternity in heaven—and ridiculously wealthy.

Want inner health and happiness now? Be generous! Want to be ridiculously wealthy when it counts—in heaven. Be generous now!

A Simple Prayer To Be More Like Jesus:

God, help me to loosen my death grip on money, so my money doesn’t have a death grip on me. Strengthen me to be ridiculously generous toward the things you are about.
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Since This Is True, Why Wouldn’t You Generously Give?

ThanksLiving: 365 Days of Gratitude

When we give back a portion to God of what is rightfully his, he entrusts us with even more to give back. The more we give to God, the more God gives us to give. And when we enter that cycle of generous giving, we become a conduit of God’s blessings—both material and immaterial. It is true: you cannot out-give God.

Going Deep // Focus: 1 Chronicles 29:13-14

O our God, we thank you and praise your glorious name! But who am I, and who are my people, that we could give anything to you? Everything we have has come from you, and we give you only what you first gave us!

Are you a generous giver? I am not talking about the amount that you give, or could give, I am referring to your heart, or the attitude you have toward giving financially to God’s work. Truly, when you read the whole of scripture, you cannot be anything other than generous when you understand this one eternal principle:

Everything in your possession is not really yours; it all comes from God. Giving generously from it simply is giving back to God what is rightfully his.

Now here is a corollary truth that makes giving back to God the smartest thing you could ever do: When we give back a portion to God of what is rightfully his, he entrusts us with even more to give back. The more we give to God, the more God gives us to give. And when we enter that cycle of generous giving, we become a conduit of God’s blessings—both material and immaterial. It is true: you cannot out-give God.

King David understood this. In 1 Chronicles 29, he is appealing to the congregation of Israel to do what he has done. He has joyfully made a generous contribution to the construction of the temple. David is on the bell lap of his life’s journey, and he is diligently making preparations for something he always wanted to do: build a grand house to God. But God had told David he wasn’t to be the one to build it; Solomon would be that guy. However, David could certainly make preparation for it. And boy did he! Just read the chapter to see what David had left in the bank, so to speak, for his son’s project.

Notice the king’s plea that the people follow his example of generous giving. In today’s church language, he is taking an offering like none other. But it is the verse I have selected that is the key to what David was requesting, and it is the key to whether or not you are going to give from a mindset of generosity. That mindset comes from a prayer; it is actually from something he said to God about God that unlocks the extreme generosity of giving:

O our God, we thank you and praise your glorious name, but who am I and who are my people that we should be permitted to give anything to you? Everything we have has come from you, and we only give you what is yours already! (Living Bible)

Since it all comes from God anyway, giving the portion that he prompts you to give back to him is a fundamental issue of faith and trust and obedience on your part. When you get that right, your generosity gives God a shot, through your offerings, to not only replenish what you release to him, but to open up the spigot so that heaven’s abundance literally overflows in your life.

Again, your giving activates a circular law of generosity. That law says that when you are generous with what God has provided, he will give you more so that you can give away more, and as you give away more, he will give you more to give away. And thus you have entered the cycle of generosity.

God measures giving by generosity of heart. The amount debited from your account doesn’t count—it is your attitude that makes you a candidate for this cycle. It is not rote obedience to some law of tithing that God is looking for from you, it is the overflow of the spirit of grace that reflects God loving ownership of you and all that you have. When you settle the issue of generosity, then the law of tithing and questions about how much to give become moot.

I cannot determine giving for you; no one can—it’s a matter of your heart. But if you get it wrong, you are going to miss out on the thrill of generous giving. Get it right, and you will become a pipeline for the abundance of heaven.

And who in their right mind wouldn’t want that!

Going Deeper With God: Settle the matter of who owns what you have—you or God. If you go with God, then rejoice the next time you give: you are worshiping him. And then get ready for the goodness of heaven to flow to you and through you.

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Giving To Get In Order To Give

Reflect:
II Corinthians 9:81

“And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.”

As is usually the case with some of the great “promise verses” in the Bible, there are surrounding verses that set the conditions for fulfillment of God’s committed favor. Such is the case here, where we are told that God will bless us at all times in every way with every thing we need for life, joy and success.

What are the conditions of such an amazing promise? Paul has been teaching the Corinthian Christians for two whole chapters now about the ministry of giving. Of course, God gave to us first, so our giving to him doesn’t initiate his giving. Our giving is simply a thankful response to what he has already done, yet our liberality is also a catalyst for a continued, if not even greater flow of divine favor into our lives. Here is how Paul says it:

“Each one should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.” (II Corinthians 9:7-8)

Paul gives some pretty clear guidelines as to how God desires for you to give in order to bless you with greater abundance:

First, you are to give authentically. No one should tell you how to give or how much to give—not even the preacher. “You are to decide” about giving, Paul says. You need to dig way down deep and come to grips with the ministry of giving, until it is a value that drives your stewardship.

Second, you are to give eagerly. Give because you really love God and want to demonstrate your love with a tangible expression of your devotion to him. Don’t do it because it will make you feel better, ease your guilt or make you look good. Don’t do it just because you feel pressured to give, “not repulsively or under convulsions,” as the little boy who misquoted the verse said. Rather, “each one should give what he has decided in his heart to give.” You are to give because it’s just the right thing to do. Give because it is the nature of love to give. Give because it is consistent with Christian character. Give from a convinced heart. If your gift doesn’t send the message of genuine desire, it won’t count as love.

Third, you are to give delightfully. Why? “For God loves a cheerful giver.” Truly authentic and heartfelt givers will enjoy giving the gift. They don’t think giving as a loss or a requirement or a burden, rather they think of the joy it brings and the love it communicates to the recipient. That’s what Hebrews 12:2 says about Jesus, our example of joyful generosity: “For the joy set before him, he endured the cross.” Now that was the ultimate act of joyful giving!

Fourth, you are to give expectantly. Paul teaches that when you give in a way that is pleasing to the Lord—authentically, altruistically, joyfully—God will make sure that you will always have plenty to give away: “And God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others.” As someone has wisely pointed out,

“Give according to your income, lest God make your income according to your giving.”

What a privilege it is to give back to God. When we get giving right, God takes it upon himself to makes sure that we will abound in every good work.

“Since much wealth too often proves a snare and an encumbrance in the Christian’s race, let him lighten the weight by ‘dispersing abroad and giving to the poor’, whereby he will both soften the pilgrimage of his fellow travelers, and speed his own way the faster.” ~Augustus Toplady

Reflect and Apply: Offer this prayer to your Heavenly Father: “Lord, you are the Supreme Giver. You gave your best, you gave your all, you gave yourself. From the depth of my heart, I thank you. It is now my honor and joy to give back to you. May the sacrifice of my offerings be acceptable worship pleasing to you.”