S167P5 – Sources of joy: his sacrifice
2 Cor. 9:6-8
But this I say: 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.
When I first started going to church, I remember a conversation I had with an old friend of mine. The first thing she said to me was that she hoped I was not giving my money to the church. I thought that was quite a strange point to focus on when first learning that I had become a Christian, but that was her main concern. In her opinion, the church is just a mechanism for generating money; it is a business that feeds on people’s emotional need. I think another issue for her was the idea of ownership, which is an invention of man. I could think only of how sad it was that something as minor as parting with a few dollars which are not even hers would keep her from God.
The call from God that we be cheerful givers is rooted in his own sacrifice. We are to find joy in the sacrifice He made to redeem us, and our perspective on his giving should inform our giving. We already know that He gave with joy, and we cannot emulate his character without doing that as well. A root concept of this is stewardship because nothing we have is ours; everything we have comes from him. He gave out of what is his, and we give out of what it is his as well, so we lose nothing through our giving. If we can accept this, then we realize that everything we give is his anyway. It is nothing but hypocritical of us to be so joyful at the sacrifice of Christ for us yet be resentful that He would ask us to sacrifice much for him.
If I think of approaching an altar with a sacrifice when I think of giving, it completely changes the picture for me. That act of sacrifice would have been holy and would have required the right attitude. It would have been no good for someone to drag their feet to the altar and give less than their best in resentment. The story of Cain and Abel shows us that. Regardless of the context of our giving, whether it is directly to God or to another in his name, it should be with joy as well as reverence that we surrender what we have. Father, help us to give with joy no matter how little or how much we are giving, showing that we appreciate your sacrifice and wish gladly sacrifice gladly just the same.