Your Giving Is Not A Bill Anymore

Giving gets complicated fast. Somebody made it a rule, somebody else made it a guilt trip, and now you are not sure what your money has to do with God at all.

Jesus did address it. Matthew 23:23 says, "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone." He never called giving wrong. He called out people who gave precisely and lived coldly.

The bigger shift happened at the cross. Galatians 3:13 says, "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree." Nothing is hanging over your head when you open your wallet. The penalty was paid in full, by Someone else.

So the question stopped being how much and became where it is coming from. 2 Corinthians 9:7 says, "Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver." Not of necessity. God is not after your obligation.

Giving out of fear is exhausting and it never feels like enough. Giving out of love is a different thing entirely, and that love is already in you because the Holy Spirit put it there. Ask Him what to give and give it cheerfully, even if the amount is small.

You are not buying anything from God. Everything you needed He already handed you in Jesus. What is left is the joy of getting to be part of what He is doing in somebody else's life.