Four Kinds of Giving – Part 1

You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.” Haggai 1:6

Haggai, a prophet in the Old Testament, lived at a time when the Israelites had become so obsessed with getting rich, they’d forgotten about God. Haggai had an angry prophetic rant about how’d they’d spent their all investing in their own ‘panelled houses’ while God’s house lay in ruins.

He was right, of course: if we belong to Him, and all we have has come from and belongs to Him, then what right have we to decide how our money is used? After all, if someone came along and randomly stuck $100 in your hand, the first thing you would ask is ‘what’s this for’?

Now a lot of Christians stick to a principle called the ‘tithe’ – in other words, setting aside the first 10 per cent of everything you earn and giving it to God. That puts Him first, shows that we’re not forgetting Him, shows that His plans for healing this broken world are important to us too…

But how about this for an even more radical principle: each time you receive any money, be it wages or anything else, ask God ‘what’s this for?’ and figure out what He might want. Life will certainly get a whole lot more interesting!

Prayer

Heavenly Father, help me remember that everything is from You and belongs to You. Help me to ask YOU what you want with what is Yours. In Jesus Name, Amen