Resource
Sheet 2
How
to Give? – a quick summary
The
following are brief notes to help focus on how we may go about it.
For a fuller explanation go to the main article on ‘Learning to Give
by Faith'.
1.
With
Regularity:
- If you don't plan it, you probably
won't give (see 1 Cor 16:1,2).
- Put money aside before Sunday morning,
or even set up a Standing Order, to ensure that your giving is not
casual but a purposeful act of worship.
- If you are away one week, or we
have a Guest Service, do you give double next week?
- That
is regular giving, making
sure you never miss out.
2.
With
Determination:
- The enemy will give you every reason
why you can't give: “You can't afford to give!” - a lie, it just
means you consider your own needs more important than God's!
- It may be quite a battle to break
new ground, because of the spirit of the age, but God will bless
our perseverance.
- It just needs our determination
and His grace (2 Cor 9:8).
3.
With Planned Calculation:
•
Not leftovers:
•
The experience of most is that unless
you plan and calculate it, you will only give God the leftovers
(change in the pocket).
•
If you only give what is left over,
you will find you give virtually nothing, an unscriptural nothing!
•
God first, then adjusted lifestyle:
•
A giver starts by saying “What can
I give to God? Now what is left over to live with?” and adjusts
their lifestyle accordingly.
•
The experience through the ages is
that if you start by considering having to maintain your lifestyle,
you will never be content (e.g. Hag 1:2-11), yet when people have
honoured God first, then the blessing of God has been on them (see
Mal 3:8-12).
4.
Deciding an amount:
•
Again experience shows that unless you
determine a regular amount, you will become self-concerned, anxious,
in financial difficulty and eventually not give at all.
•
Setting an amount is difficult. Setting
a regular percentage of income proves the easiest.
•
The tithe (10%) of the O.T. indicated
that God knew that the Israelite could live comfortably on the other
90%.
•
What went for them could be a good guide
for us.
•
The crucial thing is making the decision
to do it.
•
Once you do it, it soon becomes easy
and you find blessing comes on your finances.
•
Today people ask “10% of my gross or
net income?”.
•
Well start with net and watch how your
attitude changes.
•
Once we break the materialistic hold
over us, faith starts to flow in abundance.
•
Soon we find we have a freedom to give
without worry and, even more, soon we find a new order and blessing
coming to our lives, and when there are special needs we won't reduce
our regular percentage giving, but simply extend our faith to give
more.
5.
With Awareness:
- As we break the stronghold of materialism
over our lives by regular, determined, calculated giving, God starts
opening our eyes to see the whole “spending thing” in a new light.
- Be warned this is a consequence!
- If you determine to put this area
of your life right with God, He will start showing you the world through
new eyes.
- Your concerns will soon become less
self-centred and more others-centred.
- Be aware, that sometimes when we start
giving to God in an obedient, faith filled way, other things change
as well, but the end result will always be blessing, because He promises
it.
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