persingw@exis.net
Too often I hear ministers and others making a direction connection between their blessings from God and their financial giving to God (a.k.a. “the prosperity gospel”). These people quote from the Old Testament about the tithing requirement of the ancient Israelites (Lev 27:30, Dt 12:17) and God’s promise to Israel of great blessing for it. The New Testament only mentions love offerings for the Church and the poor (Acts 24: 17). Like most of the Mosaic Law, tithing passed away with the death of Christ and Christians should now give in love to God instead being under the legal requirement to do so though tithing may be a good financial benchmark to use. Depending on your income, family size, and location, some Christians may have difficulty in giving 5% while others could easily give 20% or more of their income without any decrease in their standard of living.
God makes it clear that He wants obedience, not sacrifices (or its modern equivalent of financial donations) (Hos 6:6, Mic 6:8, Mt 9:13). Unfortunately, too many Christians are lead to believe that the more we give financially to God, He must likewise respond with larger and larger (usually financial) blessings to us. But God is sovereign; He is not required to respond in kind or respond at all. We know the story of how wealthy Job was and how he made sacrifices for his sins and well as his whole family. Yet, he was not immune from troubles nor did he receive an adequate explanation from God why he should experience such troubles. Jesus tells the story (Luke 21: 1-4) of the poor window who gave her whole wealth of two pennies to the Temple. Yet, Jesus never mentions in the story of her later receiving an immense financially blessing for doing so. Jesus’ story is just the opposite of what we hear today. We would now hear of the endless blessings (especially financial) she received for it and how we too could get these great blessings by doing the same.
I knew a man who gave ten percent of his income to the church for over thirty years and, just before he was to retire, he came down with a rare form of cancer and died. His window who was looking forward to their retirement together now faces twenty or thirty years of being alone. What blessings did either receive from the decades of their financial contributions? Looking over my financial records for the last ten years, two-thirds of the time I increased by giving to the Church, my income went down; the remaining one-third of the time it went up only a small amount. I got just the opposite effect that these ministers said I would.
If one were to travel to China, Vietnam, Indonesia, Sudan, and many other countries where persecutions of Christians is common and deliver this message that by giving more money to the church, God guarantees pouring out of His blessings (especially financial) to them, these Christians would wonder what distant planet you arrived from.
So, for Christians, they should remember:
First, God wants your obedience – not your money.
Second, God wants you give in love – not because you are expected to do so or expect a reward for doing it. God wants you give what you can. For some people it may be only a small amount; for other people, it may be a large amount.
Third, God is sovereign. He will give blessings to whom He chooses. Some people may receive great blessings for their giving; others may see neither an increase nor a decrease in their current blessings; and others may experience many troubles in their lives regardless of the amount of their giving.
Our blessings are not what we want or can buy from God, but to have faith that God will bless us on what He believes we should have.
Copyright by William Persinger
