Transaction-Based Giving

I was sitting in with the youth of our church last Wednesday, and listened to a great teaching about giving from John our youth director. Great job! John made an extraordinary point about how we have wrongly looked at giving.

Our society is a transaction based society. Say I go to the store to get milk. I have to give the cashier money in order to have that milk. If I want to have electricity, I have to pay my electric bill. There is a transaction that must take place. An exchange takes place for services and goods. Unfortunately, this is what giving has come to for most people. “If I want to be in right standing with God and the church, I have to give” (I am obligated). Or, you may be on the “If I give, God has to bless me” side that makes God the obligator to bless because I gave my offering (God is obligated). Both of these schools of thoughts have some truth in them, but both have wrong heart motives.

There is a side that people miss in both of these schools of thought. In the “I am obligated” camp. You have many of the most consistant givers in the church. They give every Sunday or every other Sunday like clockwork. The problem is that is all they will do. No more, no less. They are not moved by the suffering of others. They see a need and will refer to the check they gave last Sunday. These folks say when a need is presented in the church ” what are  they doing with my check?” These people miss the whole point of what giving is all about. You can be consistant and still have a selfish, dirty, uncompassionate heart. Consistancy in this believer’s life only means they are disciplined with thier giving. It doesn’t take a giving heart to give. Religion is the God of this believer, cause the Jesus of the bible was moved with compassion for the lost, the poor, and the needy. If you only give to maintain a right standing in church or with God, then you are not in right standing cause this the heart that God is looking for:

Isaiah 58:6-7

⁶⁾“Is not this the fast that I choose:
  to loose the bonds of wickedness,
   to undo the straps of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
   and to break every yoke?
⁷⁾Is it not to share your bread with the hungry
   and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover him,
    and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?

The “God is obligated” camp is equally jacked up. To throw your money in the offering plate and expect God to give you money back is like throwing your money in the stock market and because you invested it, you think you are obligated to make money. This is definitely not the case. I am not saying that God cannot bless us on this Earth. He wants to bless us, but most of His blessings come in ways we can’t describe or won’t be fully understood till we see Him face to face. This inaccuracy of scripture being taught only feeds our self-centered nature, which needs no help, waging war against what God wants us to do. God is not a vending machine! God is moved by a heart that says whether God does anything more for me than what He has already done, I will glorify Him with everything that He has blessed me with. That is the kind of heart that God will bless, not the one who thinks that God is obligated. God doesn’t owe you any more than what He has already done.

God help us destroy these mindsets! Let us have a heart to help others without a thought for ourselves and glorify You alone!

Kevin