Giving Leads to Begetting
During our recent visit to Israel, we were given the unforgettable opportunity to float in the Dead Sea. As the world’s deepest salt lake at 430.5 meters below sea level, this tributary of the Jordan River forms part of the famous Rift Valley that stretches all the way down into the continent of Africa. After an epic, fun-filled day, my one daughter and I decided to run down Masada earlier that morning, I was in a pensive mood as we travelled to the Sea of Galilea, where we were going to overnight. The difference between these two bodies of water cannot be starker, as many of you may know.
The Dead Sea has an inlet but no outlet. Year after year, it has been received and not given.
In spite of this, I discovered earlier that day that it has a rapidly receding shoreline, one that is a growing concern to environmentalists who have been making all kinds of ambitious plans trying to remedy the situation. Various contributing factors have been offered, but the one that made the biggest impression on me was when someone jokingly declared, “The Dead Sea is dying of stinginess!”
Today we are talking about giving. In Proverbs 3: 9 & 10, we read: “honour the LORD with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine.” So much more than a Christian duty or obligation, giving is a response of the heart touched by grace and awareness that all belongs to the Lord. David says beautifully in Chronicles 29: 14b, “Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand.”
In agrarian Israel, farmers implicitly understood that their ploughing, sowing, watering and weeding could not make the seed grow — only God could bring the increase. This dependence upon their creator formed the foundation of the Kingdom Principles of first fruits – giving God the first and the best! A principle that God expects us to apply to our modern-day realities with the same diligence. Therefore, we need to know beforehand what to do when we receive a rise in salary or how to handle our birthday bonus. When we give our first fruits to God and not what is left over after the bills are paid, we exercise faith. It is such obedience that releases God’s abundant blessing. No wonder it has been said that true worship involves three books: God’s book, meaning the Bible, the hymn book and the pocketbook.
While many of us agree with the principle of giving, what we believe can only be revealed by what we do with our varied and multi-layered blessings. Some believers are tight-lipped, reluctant to share the love of Christ with those outside the body who are suffering and desperately lonely, bored and without purpose. Other Christians are tight-fisted, unwilling to share their ample resources with the physically poor and needy. And still, we have more to give, as we are called to steward our mental abilities, emotional capacities, giftings and talents on top of our material possessions and spiritual truths, for only then are we indeed channels of God’s blessings to others. And the warning from Jesus is clear – if we have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust us with true riches?
GRACE CHALLENGE FOR THE WEEK: Can we honestly say we are stewards of our resources? Can we genuinely say our lives are channels of blessing? Do we give to God the first and the best?
