Giving

Giving

Many years ago I was at a large auditorium for a conference. There were thousands of people there praising and thanking God. When it was time to take the offering, the leader gave an animated plea for hilarious giving on the part of those attending. He asked us to bow our heads and seek the Lord as to how much we should give.

I dutifully bowed my head and told the Lord I was willing to give $25. I thought that was a generous amount considering my present financial condition. It was not an audible voice, but I am sure He said. “How about $50?” I thought I can’t afford that. Then again He said, “How about $100?” I though “wait a minute this is getting out of hand.” Before I heard more instructions from on high, I wrote a check for $100 and dropped it in the white plastic KFC bucket when it came my way.

I was not a happy camper when I let go of my hard earned cash at that conference. I had always put something in the offering plate but never that much. Sometime later I read in the Bible “God loves it when the giver delights in the giving.” Another translations says, “God loves a cheerful giver.”

I’ll be honest with you; it has taken a long time to change my attitude from thinking like Scrooge to being a “cheerful giver.” The real issue is who’s money is it? The bottom line is that all that I have comes from the Lord: my job, my health, and my very breath. It took encouragement from the Bible and friends to realize what a privilege and blessing it was to give cheerfully out of my own resource to bless others.

As I look back on that experience, I see that I needed a real heart change. Giving out of a generous heart is far better than giving because I have to. In the Book of Proverbs it says: “The world of the generous gets larger and larger; the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller.” Amen!

Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year