Cheerful Giving

A few years back, about five if I’m not mistaken, I saw the most ridiculous thing on the news and it randomly popped into my head recently. Some churches were having “Tithing Challenges” to get people to pay their tithes. Pay 10% of your income or more and if you don’t get a blessing in 3 months, you get your money back…..WHAT?!?! I was so shocked by what I heard that I took to my only public writing outlet at the time which was Facebook. My thoughts then are the same as they are now, and I’d like to share them again.

So we’re putting God on a timer now? Basically giving Him a deadline? Do you know how crazy and disrespectful to the Lord that sounds?! “Well Lord, it’s coming up on 3 months now since I gave you that check (which was yours to begin with). I haven’t seen any fruit from that seed. I gave you a strict 3 month deadline, so I guess I’ll be taking that back from you now.”

Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

2 Corinthians 9:7 NIV

God loves a cheerful giver. You don’t tithe because it’s a chore. You don’t receive an instant blessing just because you tithed once. Besides, YOU HAVE ALREADY BEEN BLESSED! Everything you have, whether it’s a little or a lot, it’s a blessing from God. For Christians to have to be bribed to tithe is actually quite shameful. 

If it wasn’t for the Lord, you wouldn’t have that check to begin with! It’s by his grace that you are physically able to work for that money. It’s by his grace that you were given the skills and the talent to acquire the occupation that allows you to put food on your table.

I’ll be honest, I’m afraid to play with God the way some people do. Just imagine if he treated us the way we treated him. “Well Billy, I see you’re still living life the way that you see fit, and you’re still out here sinning and things. You know that breath in your lungs, you know, the breath that I gave you? Let me go ahead and get that back from you!” 

I guess it’s necessary to say that I know I’m not perfect, nor am I proclaiming to be. I’m still on a journey with the Lord everyday, and I pray he is pleased with the person I’m becoming as I continue to learn and grow.

One thing that I know for sure is that God is real!!! Y’all keep playing with him if you want to, I want no parts of those shenanigans. But I’ll pray for you!