On Sunday, during second service, Pastor Gary mentioned that if we are giving our finances begrudgingly, then God does not want it. What God is after is a cheerful giver. (He's absolutely right--because he's more concerned with us than he is our money.) Whenever I heard this as a kid, however, I would wonder, "What about when I don't feel like giving, but know I should. Does this get me out of giving because I don't feel like it? If I'm not cheerful, do I get to keep my tithe?"
Of course, asking this question missed the entire point. The point in tithing is not the money, but the giver. When Israel was commanded to bring their first livestock and crops, it wasn't because God needed food, but because they needed God more than their firstborn livestock. In seeking to get out of giving, by asking the question I did, I was actually giving up the freedom to be cheerful. I wanted to get out of giving by being grumpy about giving, not realizing that I had sold my attitude for something pretty cheap.
So what does this mean? Obviously there are times we don't feel like giving. How, then, do we respond? I think that we should live into the direction of life that we want God to take us in. If we want our feelings to get us out of giving, then they will. If we want our giving to lead to the character of Christ, then it will. The question I should have asked as a kid wasn't, "Do I get to keep my tithe?", but "What kind of person do I want to become?"
Grace and peace!
Brother Aaron
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Brother Bob Lawler shared this awesome story with me. I'm posting it here with his permission.
In the mid-80's I was stationed on Whidbey Island in the Puget Sound of
Washington State. Besides the military base, the major industry on the
island was fishing. Many members of my church were fishermen. 1985
was a particularly bad year for fishing, and many families were having
a tough time making ends meet. A very dedicated and faithful family in
our church one of these families. After a fishing expedition to Alaska
had turned out bad, money was in short supply. The man and his wife
wanted to be faithful and contribute their tithe on what little money
there was. But with three kids, there was no way that all commitments
were going to be met. They prayed for guidance, but that did not keep
them from agonizing over the problem. Finally the husband was driving
to the docks in the afternoon to get ready for that night's fishing,
and he just stopped into the church and wrote a check for the amount of
the tithe and gave it to the secretary. He then called his wife and
told her what he had done. She said she was glad he had done that,
and that she knew it was going to be fine now. That night his boat
intercepted a massive school of salmon and the catch was so big the
nets were in danger of breaking. Does that sound familiar? And when
the managed to get it onboard, it was more than the boat could handle
and still be safe from sinking. Does that sound familiar? So he sent
a radio message to his brother to bring his boat over, and they filled
it up, too. Does that sound familiar? God's promise was real. I know
this sounds like a fantastic story, but I was there, and I saw what
happened in this family's life, and I heard the testimony of the man
and his wife, and I saw how they were blessed. The blessing came only
after they were faithful. God did not deliver the blessing in
advance. If that were the case, the giving would not have been based
on faith, but on reward.
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