Giving
What if you gave like you believed that the God of the universe would always take care of you & provide for you?
Today I want to suggest 3 quick things you & I might consider as we strive to be people of uncommon generosity. I believe we should all strive to be people of uncommon generosity because we serve a God who is a God of uncommon generosity. Jesus’ words in John 3.16 remind us that, “God so loved the world that He GAVE His one & only Son…”
God is a giver. He has given us everything. So how can we grow in our giving?
[Tweet “God is a giver.”]FIRST :: Remember WHY you give.
Ask yourself why you give, it’s different for everyone. Most of us get stuck in thinking about WHAT we give, or HOW we give… but if you don’t know why you give nothing else really matters. First figure out & understand why you give.
In their book, Funded & Free, Casey Graham & Joseph Sangl say that people give for one of five different reasons.
5 Reasons People Give
1. Relationship: People will give money to a larger organization because of the relationship they have with the people there.
2. Vision: Strong vision inspires people to give. Proverbs 29:18 (KJV) states: “without vision, the people perish.”
3. Need: People will give to need. Express a need clearly and show them how addressing it will help the church accomplish its mission. People will give.
4. Obedience: Many people give because they are living lives that are obedient to God’s Word.
5. Education: People give because they have been educated about what God’s Word says about money, and they have been taught practical tools that helped them put their desire to give into action
Think about why you give, then make sure your giving aligns with what Jesus says.
SECOND :: Automate what’s important.
Consider setting up online recurring giving. When we plan what percentage of our income we want to give & then we automate that gift, we communicate that our giving is that important.
2 things to think about here…
// Whenever you’ve received a gift that you know cost the giver something significant, that gift communicated something to you. What does you’re giving communicate to God?
// And, if you’re anything like our family, we automate all the important financial things we do each month. When we automate our giving & set it up online to happen each month, we communicate just how important our giving to the church is to ourselves, to our family & to God.
THEN :: Celebrate what God does.
When you give in a way that demonstrates your faith & dependance on God, He will do things that you can’t explain any other way except to say, Only God. I call these stories Only God stories & if you have an Only God story, you know what I’m talking about. We need more Only God Stories.
[Tweet “Give in a way that demonstrates your faith & dependance on God.”]A word of caution here is needed, because we don’t give to God to get. That’s not why we give. And when we give it doesn’t mean we won’t struggle, have hardship or face difficulty. But, when we give we demonstrate in a tangible way our dependance on God. And even though we may face difficulty, we can know that we will never face it alone. God will be with us through it all.
Giving it all to God
Every week at our church we have a time of giving after communion. Interestingly, we always do this right after we remember & celebrate the greatest gift we’ve ever been given. After remembering how Jesus GAVE His LIFE on the cross for us, we pass the baskets & we give an offering back to God.
Whenever we do this, my wife always gives our kids some change, or maybe a dollar bill, to put in the offering basket.
And the deal is, they have to put ALL of it in. They don’t get to keep any. We give them a set amount of money, then they have to give ALL of it to God.
We really haven’t talked about it, but we know & our kids know that is the expectation. Whatever we give them, ALL OF IT goes in the basket.
There’s a sense in which we’re teaching them right now the importance of giving to God & in a sense, the importance of giving EVERYTHING to God.
And it made me wonder, What if that’s what we’re all supposed to do?
God our Father gives us a certain amount of money… we start by remembering that! Everything we have, every dollar we have, it all came from God our Father!
And then, we give it all back to Him.
And when we do, when we go all in with God, He notices & we are transformed. Because giving everything to God who gives us everything is transformational.
[Tweet “Giving everything to God who gives us everything is transformational.”]
