The title of this post was not the title of last Sunday’s message at Ranch Community Fellowship, but it was the question we were asking. Does God have me? Have I truly surrendered myself to him and trust him with my life? We’re looking at our use of money to answer those questions.
What does our giving say about our relationship with God? People give many reasons for why they do not give to God and others generously. At the root of almost every reason one can imagine there are two issues that cannot be ignored.
First, some of us don’t believe God is capable of providing for us with what is left after we give to Him. Admittedly, many of us have either mismanaged our money. We have used credit way too freely to get what we can’t really afford. Some of us have had a staggering, unexpected crisis of some sort that has shaken our financial footing. Still others of us have been struggling with our financial stability for so long that we don’t know what it’s like not to always be worried about there being more month than money. Of course, it takes more faith to give in the face of these situations, but it always takes faith to give to God. With God’s multiple promises to take care of us couple with his directives to give, what does it say about us when we don’t give. Does it say we don’t trust God to do what he says he will do; that we don’t trust him to provide for us when we give to him?”
The second reason can sometimes, but not always, be related to why we find ourselves in these situations. As a result of the sin infection we all carry, most of us tend to view life as if we were the center of the universe. We’re what matters, and as long as our desires, wants, and needs (real and imagined) are met, that’s what’s important. While it may sound harsh and we might not want to admit it, we’ve clearly determined that what God wants is not as important to us as what we want. Does this mean we have not surrendered our lives to God?
A popular passage on tithing, Malachi 3, is often quoted simply to encourage people to tithe, that is, give ten percent of their income to God. However, that is not the main point of the passage. While I have no doubt God wants us to give ten percent and more (tithes and offerings) to him and that he will pour out blessings so great we cannot contain them, this is not the most important thing here. In Malachi, God is bothered the people are not fully embracing and following him. He points to their lack of giving, among other things, as evidence that they neither fully trust him nor are they fully surrendered to him.
“I the Lord do not change. So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. Ever since the time of your forefathers you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord Almighty. “But you ask, ‘How are we to return?’ “Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. “But you ask, ‘How do we rob you?’ “In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse—the whole nation of you—because you are robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it." (Malachi 3:6-10, NIV)
Generous giving indicates our trust in God and the full surrender of our lives to him. As harsh and as crass as it sounds, when God does not have our money he does not have us. There is no such thing as mature Christ-follower who is not a generous giver.
