Giving is a matter of trust!
Today’s devotion is based off of week 3 of Unlikely Heroes: A Widow (WATCH HERE)
What keeps us from being more generous with our financial resources?
Certainly we have to guard our hearts against greed and love of money, which is a root of all kinds of evil, but I wonder if one of the key reasons we hesitate to be generous with our giving to the Lord is fear.
Fear I won’t have enough.
Fear the bills won’t get paid.
Fear I won’t be able to retire.
Money can be a security blanket for us, which does challenge us to evaluate our heart and ask, “Am I trusting money for things I should be trusting God for?”
The giving of the tithe was and still is an exercise in trust. It was a beginning point that God challenged his people to return to him through their offerings a tenth of all they made. As they gave the tithe, they were challenged to trust and not fear that they would not have enough if they gave ten percent to the LORD first.
What did they discover?
God challenged them and God blessed them. Here’s Malachi 3:8ff
8 “Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me.
“But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’
“In tithes and offerings. 9 You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me. 10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it. 11 I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe,” says the Lord Almighty. 12 “Then all the nations will call you blessed,for yours will be a delightful land,” says the Lord Almighty.
Growing in the grace of giving is growing in our trust in the LORD and driving out the fear from our hearts.
This promise that the LORD gives through Malachi is one that I personally have experienced and know other Christians have as well. When you simply decide to honor the LORD by giving 10% to him through your local church, you a) learn to trust he will provide and b) you learn to adjust your cravings for things and live on the 90% that remains. Part B maybe is the challenge because decisions have been made that have increased debt or financial responsibilities. It’s hard to say “No” to eating out or a new TV or a new car. We can feel a sense of entitlement that we deserve it or we “need” to have it. Marketing and advertising are not our friends as they seek to instill discontent and communicate you are missing out on something in life if you don’t buy their product.
For sure the issue can be complex and one may need help learning to better manage one’s financial wealth.
But perhaps this morning let your prayer be this, “Lord, help me to trust you in all things…including my finances so that I can joyfully and regularly give a tenth of my income to you through my church for the work of spreading the Gospel.” And see how God both enables you to do this and blesses you through it!
Apply: Evaluate today how much you make and what percentage of your income you are giving to the LORD through your local church (the primary recipient of the tithe). Begin to ask the Lord’s guidance to increase that from where you are to the 10%…and maybe even beyond!
Prayer: Lord, forgive me for robbing you by not bringing offerings to you. Forgive me for a lack of trust in you and trusting my wealth more. Help me to trust you in all things, especially my finances so that I can joyfully and regularly give a tenth of my income to you through my church. AMEN.
PS: As the LORD moves you, you may want to give a gift to the Crosspoint ministry that enables these devotions to be sent out every week. If so, please click on this link and simply indicate a gift to our general ministry fund which provides the financial resources that make these devotions possible.
GIVING LINK: https://secure.myvanco.com/L-ZG4W/home
Excel in giving!
Today’s devotion is based off of week 3 of Unlikely Heroes: A Widow (WATCH HERE)
2 Corinthians 8:7 But just as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in your love for us—see that you also excel in this grace of giving.
The Corinthian Christians were doing a lot of things right.
Their faith was strong.
Their words reflected God’s truth.
Their knowledge was growing in God’s wisdom.
They had a passion for the work of God’s kingdom.
And they had a deep love for Paul and people.
What could be missing?
“See that you also excel in the grace of giving.”
The Christian life has many facets that are to be brought into conformity to the Lord and his Word and ways. It starts when the Spirit of God creates a simple trust in Jesus as our Savior at baptism and then is to continue to grow throughout our lifetime. We maybe work on our speech and getting rid of the “sailor talk.” Maybe we engage in a Bible Study to learn the Bible better. We seek to love and care for the people around us. We may even find a way to serve based on our strengths.
But how do we respond when we are encouraged to grow in our generosity, especially our financial generosity?
Do we react with a pushback that says, “All the church is interested in is my money?” (Even after the church has fed you with God’s word for years, been there for you when you were sick and made sure your children had opportunities to grow in their faith?) I pray not.
Do we react with an excuse and says, “I have a lot of bills right now and once I get them paid off (or win the lottery) I will give more to the Lord through the church. I pray not.
Perhaps these are the influence of our sinful nature still at work in us that desires to keep a tight grip on our money. They are barriers to “excelling in the grace of giving.”
And giving is also a part of our life in which a Christian desires to grow.
The Spirit of God at work in us desires that we loosen our grip on our finances (not to the point of mismanagement) so that our giving is not an after thought after maintaining a lifestyle, but rather the first thought in our Christian life as a way to honor the Lord and show our trust in the Lord.
The grace of giving flows from the grace we have been given…just like every other aspect of the Christian life. Giving is not an obligation to be done, but rather an opportunity to be leveraged. We GET to give because of the grace given to us.
So this week we are going to pray for God’s Spirit to grow in us the ability to excel in the grace of giving. For as with every other aspect of our Christian life, when we better manage the wealth God has entrusted to us, the more we will see and realize the grace and blessing God has given to us.
Apply: Evaluate your heart toward giving on a scale of 1-10. Ten would be a heart that can’t wait to give, motivated fully by the grace we have been given. A One would be a heart that really struggles to give and sees it as a minor or unimportant part of our Christian life.
Prayer: Lord, thank you for all you have given to me. Help me grow in my giving so that I may excel in the grace of giving. AMEN.
As the LORD moves you, you may want to give a gift to the Crosspoint ministry that enables these devotions to be sent out every week. If so, please click on this link and simply indicate a gift to our general ministry fund which provides the financial resources that make these devotions possible.
GIVING LINK: https://secure.myvanco.com/L-ZG4W/home
Well said.
Today’s devotion is based off of week 2 of Unlikely Heroes: A Teacher (WATCH HERE)
Well said.
The teacher responds to the greatest Teacher:
Mark 12:32 “Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. 33 To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
34 When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”
It is easy to miss the point among the details.
In the plethora of laws which God had given to Israel, one may try to prioritize which of the laws is the most important. It seems by the teacher of the law’s response that many had prioritized as important the bringing of offerings and sacrifices to the temple. Perhaps this might be like “C&E Christians” (Christians who attend church on just Christmas and Easter). It is maybe perceived as the “bare minimum” activity to still claim to be a Christian. Perhaps the bringing of offerings and sacrifices on occasion was deemed to be the bare minimum to be considered a practicing Jew.
However, the teacher of the law was understanding from Jesus’ answer that what the Lord was looking for wasn’t a few “bare minimum” activities that honored a couple of the laws he had given, rather what Jesus’ answer indicated is that the Lord was interested in the full devotion of the individual’s heart. Only when the heart had been touched by the love of Christ would the actions follow in a way that honored the Lord.
The prophet Hosea put it this way as he confronted a straying Israel. The way back to the Lord wasn’t simply by going through the motions of the law, but rather a heart that was fully focused on the Lord. Hosea, speaking for the Lord said, “For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings (Hosea 6:6).
Empty actions are only indicative of an empty heart.
A heart touched by the love of God is motivated to follow the law of God.
And that’s where grace comes into play.
The grace of God reflects the love of God that was willing to send the Son of God to fulfill the law of God on behalf of each one of us. The fact that, as the Apostle Paul says, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
The amazing thing about this great exchange is that we are GIVEN the status as righteous (perfect) as a gift of God. Because we wear the righteousness of Christ, we are not following God’s law to appease the justice of God (i.e. to become righteous), but rather to reflect our gratitude for the grace of God.
And when we live in and are motivated by the grace of God, we are not far from the kingdom of God, because it is what people do whom God has brought into his kingdom.
Apply: How does your perspective change on the law of God as you realize it is there not to earn the righteousness of God, but rather to guide your life of living for God?
Prayer: Lord, thank you for your grace. Let it motivate me to live every aspect of my life as a true expression of gratitude for your grace. AMEN.
Love your neighbor…
Today’s devotion is based off of week 2 of Unlikely Heroes: A Teacher (WATCH HERE)
Love your neighbor…
At face value, Jesus’ summary of the second table of the law is simple: Love your neighbor as yourself.
However, this short command that is regularly quoted, like every other passage of Scripture is set in a context that is important to understand.
Love for neighbor flows from total love for the Lord, your God.
Love for your neighbor is not independent of love for the Lord.
To put it this way, one cannot love their neighbor well unless they love the LORD well.
Love for the Lord defines how I love my neighbor and how I love myself for that matter.
In our culture today, “love your neighbor” is often equated with the sentiment, “accept everything your neighbor is doing as OK and don’t speak against it.”
This is not the case.
Just like a parent would be negligent in the love for their child by allowing them to engage in activities that are harmful to their body or soul, so loving our neighbor well shows a genuine concern for the physical and spiritual health, just like we are to have for our own physical and spiritual health.
The Apostle Paul lays out the stark contrast between those things which harm our physical bodies and our soul. To love ourselves and our neighbor well would be to avoid these things ourselves and with truth and love help our neighbor to see the same. He also outlines what happens when love for God takes over our heart and guides our actions. The fruit of the Spirit becomes evident and obvious. These characteristics give great indicators of what it looks like when we are loving both God and neighbor.
Galatians 5:19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the fleshwith its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.
To be sure in our culture it is hard to “speak the truth in love” and communicate that danger to body and soul of certain behaviors and lifestyles. Perhaps here’s a simple encouragement to grow in our love for neighbor: Grow in our love for the LORD first, then seek with the wisdom of God’s Spirit and the examples of Jesus our Savior to love our neighbor well.
Apply: Think of a relationship that is challenging you to love right now. What aspect of God’s love for you might help you love that individual better?
Prayer: Lord give me greater depth of appreciation of your love for me so that I may have true love for my neighbor which is guided by your love for me. AMEN.
Start with the basics!
Today’s devotion is based off of week 2 of Unlikely Heroes: A Teacher (WATCH HERE)
The story is told that when Vince Lombardi, the famous coach of the Green Bay Packers, began a new year of practice, he picked up a football and held it before the team. “This is a football.” He would state.
By time a player got to the NFL, you would think they would know it was a football. However, the point of the statement was to set the tone for the team that if they didn’t understand and master the basics, the rest of the team play would be challenging.
So it is with the law of God. Moses (repeated by Jesus) starts with the basics. But perhaps in this case, it is not as obvious to everyone as a football was to Lombardi’s team.
‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.
Maybe when people in Israel heard Moses say this for the first time, they thought, “Of course he is.
However, for Israel and for us today, the statement bears repeating and emphasis. Israel would struggle in their history with the worship of other gods. This basic truth is still important to state clearly.
The LORD God is different than Buddah, Allah, or Vishnu. Even though some may think that all gods are the same, the Lord God in now way would agree to that.
Isaiah 42:8 “I am the Lord; that is my name! I will not yield my glory to another or my praise to idols.
Why is this so important to establish? Because to love any other entity or thing that is called god is an empty love at best a false love at worst.
30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’
Notice the clarity of where our love is to be focused: The Lord YOUR God.
So who is this LORD?
He is Creator.
He is the I AM who called Moses to leadership of Israel.
He is the Good Shepherd of whom King David wrote.
He is the God who loved the world so much he sent his Son to save the world.
And the list could go on.
The more we get to know about the LORD and recognize he is not a God “out there” but the personal “our” God, the more we desire to understand with clarity how we are to love him in return for all the love he has shown to us.
Like with anyone to whom we give our loyalty, the more we know them, the easier it is to love them fully.
So it is with the LORD, your God. Get to know him better and realize that when you do, it becomes more clear and perhaps easier to love him with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.
Apply: Choose a book of the Bible to read. List all the things you learn about God. What new thing did you discover to love him for?
Prayer: Lord, thank you for revealing yourself to us and being OUR God. We don’t deserve it, but we certainly appreciate it greatly. AMEN.