Photo Source: www.typographicverses.com by Ryan Miranda
Our understanding of giving begins with a grateful heart acknowledging that everything we have comes from God. This is the first principle that should influence all that we do, especially in the area of our finances. Jesus said the first and greatest commandment is to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, which means our talents, our money, our time, everything we have and everything we are. Everything we have comes from him, and he simply asks us to use it well for his kingdom, for our benefit, and for the benefit of those around us.
And secondly we love our neighbors as ourselves.
The servant gives his reasonable service. He does what the master commands because he is a servant. I believe God asks us to tithe, to give a tenth back to him. It is our duty to tithe. But doing something out of duty or the fear of the Lord is only the beginning of wisdom. We are more than servants of God who live our lives in fear of displeasing him. He calls us his children, his friends, his bride. We love him because he first loved us. And we love those he loves. We reach out to those who he wants to reach. We give our tithes to the church because the church is the body of Christ, working the work of Christ.
In the natural you sow and then you reap. When you reap your harvest, a tenth of your harvest goes to God as a tithe. From the 90% remaining you set aside grain for the next planting, you feed your family, you trade, you sell, you set aside for the future, you live your life, you help others, you leave an inheritance for your children. We work hard as unto the Lord, and give a tenth of our income back to Him, then we live our lives on the 90% remaining. And we pray, “Your Kingdom come; your will be done.”
When we’re living by Kingdom principles and understand that what we have really doesn’t belong to us anyway, it becomes easy to give. Yes, God wants us to give, and He loves a cheerful giver. But do you ever feel like if you can’t give cheerfully you shouldn’t give at all? For me, I’ve found joy in giving by recognizing that even the 90% I keep is to be used for his glory and his purpose in our lives. Then giving my tithe becomes simply an extension of me living out the kingdom of God.