In a church like ours there might be a tendency to look at giving with a negative eye and communicate it to the congregation with a pinch of fear and guilt.
Here are some of the things that have stood out as I have studied....
First, giving is a spiritual discipline that is not optional for believers. We are all called to participate in giving as the Lord has blessed us and to give with a cheerful spirit, not out of obligation but out of our love for God.
In OT, one of the ways God ensured that His people were consistent in communion and fellowship with Him was through giving, which involved sacrifice of animals, birds, flour, oils, drinks, wine, money etc
For those of you who have time (and I hope it is all of us) please read Numbers 28 and 29. In these chapters the people of God were to go to Him with their sacrifice daily (28:3-8), weekly (28:9-10), monthly (28:11-15), and yearly (28:16—29:38).
Let me do the math for us to see what they gave every year: the priests sacrificed 113 bulls, 32 rams, and 1086 lambs and offered more than a ton of flour and a thousand bottles of oil and wine. The question is, are we willing to give this much, or are these just numbers in a Holy Book?
As I was reading, this helped me to think more about how God is not only concerned with preserving His work through our giving (which is what we heavily bend towards in fund-raising) but also and maybe more importantly, in preserving our RELATIONSHIP with Him. When the Israelites made the journey to the temple daily, weekly, monthly and yearly they were acknowledging that their lives and possessions did not belong to them but to God.
There are two phrases that caught my attention and were very convicting as I looked at the way I give to the Lord: “An aroma pleasing to the Lord “and “without defect”. These were the two things that were to characterize their sacrifices.
In summary I/we have to ask the question- Am I giving God the best or am I giving Him a sacrifice without the pleasing aroma and full of defects?
Application:
One: I am guilty of focusing my giving to the advancing of the kingdom of God without cultivating my relationship with Him. What I need to do is to learn not to do one at the expense of the other. To understand that my effectiveness in building and advancing the kingdom of God will depend heavily on my relationship with Him for apart from Him I can do nothing.
The kingdom of God cannot be advanced by giving only and it cannot be advanced by relating to God without engaging the world – both have to be done for us to be successful – giving for advancing the Kingdom and giving as a way to move towards God with all that we have.
Two: I/we need to focus on my/our relationship with God and my/our passion to see His kingdom advanced in Ukunda by looking at giving as an act of worship and a movement towards Him.
My giving should be a reflection of my relationship with God and not my relationship with my wallet – which usually is the case. It MUST be without defect and an Aroma pleasing to the Lord!
My giving should not be informed by what others are giving but by what the Lord has given me. I should not compare myself with others and I do not need a pace-setter in my giving because God has blessed us differently. Some are blessed to give bulls, others goats, others oil and flour etc.
We are to give out of the abundance of what God has given US not what He has given someone else.
So I pray as we give towards Vision Move/the church it will be a giving that is characterized by two things: “An Aroma Pleasing to the Lord” and “Without Defect”.
May the Lord bless us and help us to keep this vision that He has put in our hearts ALIVE and about HIM.
