CHAPTER SEVEN: Giving from a Grateful Heart
Let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.
PAUL’S SECOND LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS includes a phrase that has become well known: “God loves a cheerful giver.” But for many, “cheerful” and “giving” don’t go together. If that’s an issue for you, how can you change your thinking about giving? And as Christians, how should we approach giving?
I hear from many people who are doing the Daniel Fast with an emphasis on finances. Many want to reassess their giving and figure out how they can give more, but they’re confused about the idea of the tithe. Because this is such a stumbling block for some people, I’d like to talk through some of our misconceptions about tithing and consider a better way to approach giving.
RETHINKING THE TITHE
Do you shudder when you hear the word “tithe”? Do you immediately feel guilt or shame? If you haven’t been a faithful tither, is there a sprinkling of fear as you worry that God will punish you? Let me set your mind at ease. If you haven’t been tithing, God isn’t mad at you. He’s not punishing you. In fact, while this may come as a shock to you, I believe that as a born-again follower of Jesus Christ, you aren’t required to tithe. Let me show you why as I put together some puzzle pieces about our faith and our giving.
I won’t go into the Mosaic law in a lot of detail; however, it’s important to understand its place in the history of God’s chosen people and what it means for you today. What is called the law of Moses was established after God freed the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. Moses, under God’s direction, led the people to the desert wilderness. The desert was not the final destination, but rather part of the journey toward the Promised Land that God would give them.
Before the people entered the Promised Land, God gave them the law, with rules and guidelines that showed the right way to live and defined their sin. The law served as the “rule” for how the Israelites were to live. It also served as a measuring tool to reveal where each individual placed their obedience, loyalty, and trust.
God knew He was the source of all that the people needed. When they were in the wilderness, they needed food, and God told them He would supply it. Each day for six days He would make bread (manna) fall from heaven. The sixth day there would be a double portion of bread for the people to gather so they could rest on the seventh day, the Sabbath.
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in My law or not.” . . .
Now it happened that some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather, but they found none. And the LORD said to Moses, “How long do you refuse to keep My commandments and My laws? See! For the LORD has given you the Sabbath; therefore He gives you on the sixth day bread for two days. Let every man remain in his place; let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.”
The Law served as the dos and don’ts for the people. They didn’t have God’s Holy Spirit in their hearts, so the written law provided the guiding principles that would form and fashion God’s elect. And there were many rules that the people were to follow. The law showed them if they were following God or if they were putting their trust and loyalty in themselves or in human authority.
The law was a covenant that God made with His people, and there were consequences for not following it. Unlike the covenant God made with Abraham, this Mosaic covenant was more of an if-then agreement. If the people followed God’s ways, then they would be blessed in the land. If they didn’t follow them, then things would not go well. In Deuteronomy 28 we can see the benefits of following the law, which is the blessing:
Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the LORD your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the LORD your God.
The curse, or consequence, is invoked for not following the law.
But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you.
The priests, from the tribe of Levi, were appointed by God to be overseers of the law. God also established that all people would work their own assigned portions of land except the Levites, as they were the servants of God and the people. The people were to provide tithes and offerings to support the Levites and fund the holy holidays and rites. So the tithe, which means ten percent, functioned like a tax. The people were to pay ten percent of all their earnings to the works of God (Leviticus 27:30). They were also required to give offerings for various life events, like the birth of a child, and at certain festivals.
The tithes and offerings were required by the law. If the people didn’t abide by the law, there would be consequences. That leads us to a passage frequently used in some churches and by some television preachers to promote giving:
“Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, ‘In what way have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse, for you have robbed Me, even this whole nation. Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and try Me now in this,” says the LORD of hosts, “if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it.
“And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, so that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field,” says the LORD of hosts; “and all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a delightful land,” says the LORD of hosts.
What we have to keep in mind is that this was part of the Mosaic covenant. God’s people were required to live by these laws to be in right standing with God. But later He sent His Son to earth to offer new commandments and a new covenant.
When you accepted Jesus as your Savior, the spirit in you that was dead immediately came to life. You are “born again.” When Nicodemus asked Jesus how he could be reborn into a new Kingdom, our Lord responded:
Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, “You must be born again.”
When you’re born again, God’s Holy Spirit then comes and lives in you. We read evidence of this in 1 Corinthians 6:19: “Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?” Your spirit came alive because of Jesus, and you were made righteous. Perfect. Without a mark or a blemish of sin. Romans 5:19 says: “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.” You are perfect in the sight of God because Jesus took your sin. He paid your debt. He redeemed you from the curse, and now you are in right standing with almighty God.
The apostle Paul writes:
For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.” But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for “the just shall live by faith.” Yet the law is not of faith, but “the man who does them shall live by them.”
Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”), that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
You are no longer required to live by the Mosaic covenant or the law. You are transformed. You have the Spirit of God living inside of you. You have been reborn, and you have a new heart. Hebrews 10:16 says, “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them.”
No longer are you required by the law to tithe or give specific offerings, and I don’t believe God is angry at you or punishing you if you don’t tithe. Under the new covenant, Jesus still calls us to give—but now with a new motivation.
THE LAW OF LOVE
Jesus was considered a radical in the religious circles of his day. He brought a new message and preached about a new way of living. One day He was challenged by the Pharisees, Jewish religious leaders who practiced the Mosaic law:
Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”
Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
Jesus told us to love God with every part of who we are, and to love others and ourselves in that same way! Love is the last word. Loving God with all of who we are fulfills all the law and all the teachings of the prophets. That idea was revolutionary.
We want love to inform our giving, as well. If we are not required by the law to tithe, we will not be cursed if we don’t tithe, so we don’t need to give out of fear. Instead, God has a new way for us to obey. It’s all about loving Him, loving ourselves, and loving others.
Am I telling anyone not to tithe? Absolutely not! What I am saying is that this new teaching transforms our motivations for giving. We want to give out of love. Out of thanksgiving. Out of a desire to care for others.
And how can we give cheerfully out of love? By knowing God as our Source and understanding that everything we have comes from Him.
This glorious freedom we can have is all part of God’s economy. It’s all part of being His chosen people who live by a new covenant that’s in our hearts and minds. We think differently than the world around us because we live by a different standard and our trust is in the Lord.
God uses His children to fulfill His desires on the earth. And we do that out of love. He is our Source, just as He was Abraham’s Source and the Israelites’. He calls us to be love in the world as He is love in the world, and one way we show our love is by cheerfully and generously giving of our resources. Here is God’s economic plan in a nutshell:
He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.
God knows He is our provider. Now we are invited and encouraged to see Him in that same way, and to let that transform the way we think about giving money away.
RELIGIOUS TITHING
God is all about love. He is love. And He wants us to grow into the abiding love He has for us and for others so it informs every area of our lives, even our giving. He wants us to give because there are needs in this world that He wants us to meet. Our generosity can help establish His love in the earth.
If we aren’t giving with a loving heart, the Bible teaches that our gifts bring no pleasure to God. They are meaningless and missing the mark:
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.
Note that the passage doesn’t say giving out of poor motives profits no one. When we give with a resentful attitude, others are still helped and God’s will can be done. But we’re not pleasing God with that negative approach. God’s desire for us is to be transformed into love. To be so driven by love that we receive pleasure in giving, just as our Lord receives pleasure by our giving.
Jesus saw that the legalistic giving of the Pharisees missed the mark. They were so focused on fulfilling the law rather than on loving God and others that Jesus rebuked them:
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.
ACCORDING TO THE ORDER OF MELCHIZEDEK
An Old Testament verse that’s often referenced in the New Testament comes when Abram gave the first recorded tithe. As we discussed in the last chapter, Abram had defeated the unruly kings who had stolen goods and captured women and children. Abram had also rescued his nephew, Lot, and recovered all of Lot’s possessions.
Abram, in honor of his God, gave a tenth of all the spoils to Melchizedek, the High Priest of Salem.
Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was the priest of God Most High.
Fast-forward to the New Testament and the book of Hebrews, chapters 5 through 7. The author teaches the Hebrew believers about the qualifications of the High Priest for God’s chosen people. He confirms that Jesus is the High Priest forever, and that He is of the order of Melchizedek.
When Abram gave the tithe to Melchizedek, it was a gift of honor. He saw the High Priest as the one representing almighty God. He gave, not out of requirement or to fulfill the law, which was established hundreds of years later. Instead, Abram gave from a heart of love and respect for his God.
You and I are blessed under the new covenant. We give to our High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek. We give, not because of a requirement that lives outside of us, but by the love that resides inside, the love in our hearts and minds.
Abram gave a tithe to the priest of the God Most High from a grateful heart. We get to do the same. Praise be to God and to our forever High Priest, Jesus Christ.
YOUR GIVING
When we want to change our hearts toward giving, we can start by increasing our gratitude. During your Daniel Fast, set a purpose to be grateful for the many blessings in your life. And I don’t mean just for your life as it is today, but for your entire life. Think back to your childhood and consider the things that were paid for your benefit. Be grateful and give thanks to God for caring for you then through the efforts of others. Did you have a bike to ride? Did you attend school? Did you have toys or books? Did you go to the doctor and the dentist? Take a few minutes now to think of a few things in your childhood that you received, and be thankful.
As you fast and pray, intentionally consider all the many blessings, big and small, that you’ve received. Extend your gratitude and thank your loving Father for His love and care toward you. That sense of thanksgiving can permeate your days and prepare your heart to share more of what you have with others.
How do we decide where and how much to give? My guess is that there are some needs in your immediate community, your country, and the world that touch your heart. You’re sensitive to specific problems you see or learn about. Even now, as you’re reading these pages, pause for a moment and think about the needs that pull at your heartstrings.
Let’s look again at the work of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and their choices for where to give. You can imagine, because of Bill’s background with Microsoft, that they first started to focus on education and getting computers into the hands of underprivileged children. That seems logical, right? But one day Melinda, who was then a young mother, read a newspaper article about the thousands of children who die each year because of diarrhea, primarily due to poor sanitation. Her mother-heart was shocked by the statistics. She shared the details with Bill, who also was struck with this new-to-him information. The compassion that stirred in their hearts that day shifted their giving priorities.
Their compassion drove their focus. Since that point, their foundation has donated billions of dollars to improve sanitation in developing countries so children don’t get sick as often. Parents don’t bury so many young children, and the children grow up to be the people God created them to be.
I realize you can’t give at that billion-dollar level. Neither can I. But we can still do something.
I’ll introduce you to an adage I like to use: “I can’t do it all, but what can I do?” I use it about giving and also for many other situations in my life. For example, “I can’t clean my whole house today, but what can I do?” Or “I can’t write the whole book today, but what can I do?” The question keeps me moving forward to the success I want to experience. It keeps me taking small steps toward the goal I want to reach.
I learned recently that Bill Gates uses a similar approach when he has a big challenge before him: “Before you get all the way there, you have to get part of the way there.”[1] That perspective helps him break down huge challenges into bite-size pieces.
Our Lord uses the same principle. Do you remember the parable of the talents from Matthew 25 that we talked about in chapter 5? When the master returned after having given his servants money to invest, he didn’t focus on the amount he gave each of the servants to manage. Instead, he looked at their behavior. The first two were both faithful, and they both received the same reward. Jesus asks us to be faithful in giving no matter how much we can afford to give. He asks us to give out of love, even if we don’t have much at all to share.
We can also learn from Jesus’ reaction to the poor woman who gave her last pennies.
Now Jesus sat opposite the treasury and saw how the people put money into the treasury. And many who were rich put in much. Then one poor widow came and threw in two mites, which make a quadrans. So He called His disciples to Himself and said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all those who have given to the treasury; for they all put in out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all that she had, her whole livelihood.”
When we give, our Lord looks at our hearts. He looks at our motives. Our giving isn’t about how much money, but instead how much service and how much love. How much trust do we have in the Lord to meet our needs so we can give from compassionate and loving hearts?
As you prepare for your Daniel Fast, ask God to open your heart to greater gratitude, greater generosity, and greater love for those around you.
Faithful Servant Action Steps
- You are a valued child of the Most High God. He is your provider and He gives you everything you need and more. Make a list in your journal of things you can thank God for.
- God loves you and your cheerful giving. He understands that you may be in a place of transition as you get your finances in order. So for now, what can you give with a grateful heart, and to what cause? Right now, give that gift and thank God for the mighty work He is doing in your heart.
- If you are changing from giving out of requirement to giving out of love, take a few minutes and shake off the old. Step into the way of love, kindness, generosity, and godly charity. See yourself as a cheerful giver.
- The Lord has placed compassion in your heart for some causes. What do you feel called to do? How will you use the resources the Lord entrusts to you as His steward so you can bless those in need or invest in a worthy cause? You might consider categories such as your local church, international or domestic humanitarian aid, disaster relief, evangelism, Bibles, or education.