EXCELLING IN THE GRACE OF GIVING (3)

“And they did more than we had hoped. They gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us, just as God wanted them to do” (2 Corinthians 8:5 CEV)

Giving is not just about donating money or other material things to encourage the work of God, support ministers of the gospel, or help the poor. Christian giving goes far beyond that as we can see in the example of the Macedonian believers. They did more than merely give their money.  They did exactly what “God wanted them to do.”  What was that?  Our Lord was once observing an offering procession in the temple as people filed out to put their offerings in the offering box.  Of all that brought their offerings that day, Jesus singled out one for special notice. She was a widow. She gave probably the smallest amount of all that offered. She gave only “two mites, which make a quadrans” (Mark 12:42 NKJV). How come this poor widow who gave the least attracted the highest applaud from God? Our Lord explains, “Jesus called his disciples over and said, “The truth is that this poor widow gave more to the collection than all the others put together. All the others gave what they’ll never miss; she gave extravagantly what she couldn’t afford—she gave her all.”(Mark 12:42-43 The Message). Come to think of it, could it be that what we give to God is what we will never miss? Could it be that we are actually giving crumbs of our surplus, treating Him as dog and not God? D-o-g may be the mirror image of G-o-d, but the two are separated by an unfathomable abyss. God is the Creator and dog is one of the least of His creatures. To give God the crumps of our surplus as if He were a dog is abominable to say the least.

The poor widow was different. She placed the right value on God. She did not give God her best, she gave Him her all. Simply put, she gave herself to God! Having given herself to God, it does not make any sense keeping anything of hers from Him. This is how God gives. “If God didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us?” (Romans 8:32, The Message). God is willing to give us everything because He first gave us Himself. This is the pattern He has set for giving in the church. The church of Macedonia followed this pattern in their giving and God was pleased with them. Paul testified of them, “And they gave in a way we did not expect: They first gave themselves to the Lord and to us. This is what God wants” (NCV). They gave way beyond the expectations of the apostles because of one overarching reason, namely, they first gave themselves to God.

The first step in giving acceptably is to first give yourself to God. What you give in church in support of the work of God is often a reflection of the extent to which you have given yourself over to God.  You give yourself to God to the extent you understand who He really is and to the extent you value Him. If you truly agree that God is your Creator and Sustainer, then you will more easily give both yourself and your all to Him. Nobody has given God all he has who did not turn out better than He ever was. The little lad with five loaves and two fishes did not realise the potential of what he had until He gave them all to Christ. That little thing, turned out to be enough to feed five thousand people with twelve baskets of surplus fish and bread. They came to God with a deficit and ended up with a surplus. Peter’s experience was even more astounding. He gave Jesus his boat to use for the gospel and his time to row the boat to a good location to enable the Lord to preach to the crowd. When Jesus finished preaching He asked Peter to throw the net again in a sea that seem to have no fish in it. Peter’s boat was filled with fish and in his generosity he invited the Zebedee’s to come and share in the blessing of God.  

The second aspect of the secret of the Macedonians’ generosity was their love and commitment to the apostles –“They first gave themselves to the Lord and to us.”  The love a congregation has for their ministers is reflected in their giving. A congregation that loves their pastor gives generously and sacrificially to enable him serve well. Let us take time to reflect on how much we value the ministers God has placed to serve us and see if we need to improve on that. We need to give ourselves to God, be loyal to our pastors, and give generously at all times for us to excel in the grace of giving. I sincerely pray that God will help us in this area so that nothing will hinder His blessing in our lives in Jesus Name.