Giving: The Source of Life

[pgjohnson]

I got a thought I want to share with you and I hope it challenges you and causes you to think. If you’ve been to church the last couple weeks you would know that I’ve been preaching a series of lessons about prosperity. I believe that God wants us to prosper in every area of our lives. And through His Word He gives us a blueprint and a plan to become prosperous. Part of that plan is that you give your tithes and offerings. Proverbs 11:25 says, “The generous soul will be made rich, and he who waters will also be watered himself.” If you know and understand God then you know that giving is the very essence of who He is. He has given so much to us, just because He loves us. So there are two questions I want you to think about. 1.) Are you giving back to God? and if so 2.) Are you giving back to God out of a thankful heart and because you love Him? See giving is a heart issue. I think the biggest reason people don’t give is because they have no understanding of what tithing and giving does for them. But I think there is also a problem even among faithful tithers and givers and that is that they are giving their tithes and offerings, but they aren’t doing it out of a love for God, they are doing it to receive the blessings that come with tithing and giving. Think about it like this; your tithe and your offering is either a noun or an adjective. For those of you who don’t remember what a noun or an adjective are, I’ll explain. A noun is a person, place or thing. An adjective is a word that describes something. If you give your tithes and offerings out of a religious obligation or as a an investment plan to receive a blessing, then your tithing and giving is just a THING to God, because your motivation is different than what true motivation for giving should be. But if you give your tithes and offerings out of a pure heart that loves God, then your tithes and offerings then become the way you DESCRIBE God. See when you are so in love with God and so thankful for what He has done in your life, then you are excited to give because your tithes and offerings are a way for you to express to God how you feel about Him. Do you see the difference? Our hearts must be in the right place when we give, otherwise were not allowing God to pour out his blessings on us. In fact, that’s how the first tithe took place. In Genesis chapter 14 Abram fights this great battle and God helps him win and delivers the enemy into Abrams hand. The scripture goes on to say that Abram was so thankful and so in love with God that he just had to show God how thankful he was. And the only thing he could think to do was to give back to God a portion of the increase he had won. So Abram gave God a ‘tithe’ of everything he earned in battle. No one told Abram to do that! He was so overwhelmed by the goodness of God that he had to do something about it! And if you keep reading on through Genesis you’ll see how after Abram blessed God with his tithe, God established covenant with Abram and blessed him far more than Abram could have even imagined. My brothers and sisters please grab a hold of this!! I want to see your lives blessed!! But blessing only come when you’re obedient to the Word of God and your heart is in the right place. We give because we LOVE God. Don’t let your tithes and offerings just be a ‘thing’. Make God first in your life and let your tithes and offerings describe to God how much you love Him. Alright, that’s all I got for you this week. As always leave any questions or comments for me and I’ll get back to them as my time allows.

Have a great rest of your week. Blessings,