Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift. (II Cor 9:15)
Father, you have given me all I have. Make me a man who gives to you all I have.
God gives. He so loved the world that He gave. He saves by grace, and grace is a gift. Eternal life is a gift. Your own breath is a gift. Food and home and friends are all gifts. Forgiveness is a gift. A new nature is a gift. The Holy Spirit, peace and joy are gifts. Every good and perfect gift comes from above, from the Father of lights. God is not merely a giver but a lavish giver. He gives exceedingly and abundantly above all that we could ask or think.
God is a lavish giver because He is a lavish lover. God gives because He loves, and He gives lavishly because He loves lavishly. Love gives. The more you love, the more you give. When a man and woman love each other, they give themselves to each other in marriage for life. No greater love is there than to give your life for your friend. God loves us so deeply that He has given His life for us. He now asks us to give our lives for Him.
If we do not love God, we will not give our lives for Him, but when we love Him, we give everything for Him.
The Christian life is a life of giving. Christ calls people to lay down their lives and follow Him. It’s expensive. You have to give Him everything. If you don’t want to give Him everything, don’t follow Him. If you want to give Him everything but find it hard . . . well . . . me too. Come join me and let’s walk this path together. It may be hard, but it’s full of joy and freedom.
Typically when we think of giving, we think of money and possessions, and, of course, giving certainly involves money and possessions, but Biblical giving is so much more. Biblical giving begins with the heart. To God writing a check without your heart in it, is a bit shallow. The heart is the foundation to giving, so let’s lay that foundation.
Here are some principles that are part of the foundation for the type of giving that God wants from us. No particular order.
Understand where everything comes from. Do you have a family? God gave it to you. Do you have a job? God gave it to you. Your bank account, your home, your education, your time, your ability to play the piano, your skill with numbers or words, your compassion? God gave them all to you. Is there any good thing you have that God did not give you?
The Christian must understand deep in the heart that everything he has came from God. We cannot give what we do not have, and we have because God first gave. We love because He first loved us, and we give because He first gave to us. Everything we give originated with God. A father gives his child spending money. The child takes some of that money and buys a gift for his father. The child thus gives to his father what his father had first given to him. Christian giving is like this.
The person who best gives sees that everything he has came from God.
Understand that everything we have is by grace. This principle relates to the one above but focuses on something different. The first principle states simply that God is the source of every good thing in our lives. This second principle focuses on merit. It’s not just that God is the source; it’s that we do not deserve any of the good things He has given. You have air to breathe and water to drink, but you did nothing to deserve such. In Christ, you have forgiveness and peace, but you did not deserve them. You have a thousand blessings at your right hand, and you have done nothing to earn them.
The Christian who sees his heart knows that he deserves nothing. And yet God has given us everything. This is grace. You have work by God’s grace. You have a family by God’s grace. You have a home by God’s grace. You have a clean heart, a renewed mind and a new nature by God’s grace.
Sometimes the rich and powerful receive gifts because they are rich and powerful, and people court their favor. But God does not need your favor. He gave to you when you were lowly and poor. You were nothing but He gave you life. You were naked but He clothed you. You were hopeless but He gave you hope.
Christians sometimes think that salvation is the only thing they have received by grace. This could not be further from the truth. Everything we have has come by grace. This fact should affect our giving because it should touch our heart. We should be grateful for what we have and not demanding that we receive more.
The Christian who best gives is the Christian who sees that he deserves none of God’s good gifts.
We need new hearts in order to give. I suppose you do not technically need a new heart to write a check or to volunteer to lead worship. Many who write checks have old hearts, and many who lead worship are merely performers. But Biblical giving goes beyond externals. If we are to give as God desires, we need new hearts, and these new hearts require God to make them new.
Ask God to give you His heart. The heart of Christ wants to give, and the heart of Christ comes only from Christ. You cannot make yourself give. You cannot clench your fists and will God’s heart. You cannot change yourself. Only God can do this. So go to Him. This is where giving is interconnected with everything else we have been discussing about walking with God. Get your heart into the Scriptures, into prayer, into a Christ-honoring church. Trust in the Cross and Resurrection, and lean on His Spirit. Look to Christ for your new life. When you do, and when He gives you a new heart, you’ll give – from the heart.
Giving is grace. This principle is different from the principle about grace above. That principle says that what you have received is grace. This one focuses on what you give.
When Paul encourages the Corinthians to give, he uses as an example the churches in Macedonia. He says, “We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia.” Paul then describes the giving of those churches and concludes with “ . . . see that you excel in this act of grace also” (II Cor 8:1-7). To Paul, the giving that the Macedonian churches practiced was by the grace of God, and the giving that he encouraged the Corinthian churches to practice was also by the grace of God.
When we give, we give out of the grace of God. This principle flows naturally out of all the principles above. The money, time, talents, and resources we have are by grace. God gave them to us. The very heart to give is also grace. God gave it to us.
All aspects of Biblical giving are grace. God graciously gives us the resources, the ability, the heart, and the privilege to give. Thus, when we give, we should be grateful.
We must give ourselves before we give our things. Paul says of the Macedonian churches, “they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us” (II Cor 8:5). One of the biggest mistakes people make when they give is that they give only their things. This sort of giving usually arises out of either legalistic motives – “I did my duty” – or a desire to feel good about ourselves – “see what a kind person I am!”
In this type of giving, the self is still at the center. We may let go of some money, but we haven’t let go of ourselves. God wants so much more than your stuff. He wants you. He wants you to give Him yourself and not just some material goods. Of course, when you give God yourself, He gets your stuff as well. Giving God yourself is not a substitute for giving Him your resources. It is the motivation and power for doing it.
When it comes to giving, keep first things first. Giving your resources is not first. It flows out of a life given to God.
Healthy giving requires contentment. Godliness with contentment is great gain. When we give ourselves to Christ, we have Christ, and if we have Christ, we have all we need. We are rich. In fact, we are richer than if we had merely a trillion dollars. The Christian who sees this is content with what he has. When we are content with what we have, we are freer to give.
If we are not content in Christ, we are not truly content. We will always want something more, and when we want more, we tend to hold on to what we have or we give grudgingly. Scripture says God loves a cheerful giver, and a cheerful giver is content. Contentment is essential to Biblical giving.
The principles above focus on our hearts. This is where giving begins.
