Partnership with Christ

August 26

God doesn’t want anything from you that you don’t want to give to Him. He doesn’t need your paltry contribution to His coffers, for He “owns the cattle on a thousand hills” Psalm 50:10. This is His way of conveying to us that everything belongs to Him—including our stuff.

So, then, what’s the point of the collection basket that is passed in every service in every church on the planet? If our Lord needs nothing from us, why should we give anything at all, let alone give a tithe of all we earn as He says we should? (Malachi 3:10)

Why should, “Each man give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver”? (II Corinthians 9:7) Why shouldn’t each man simply decide to keep what he has for himself? That’s the world’s way and God wants nothing that isn’t given happily—who can joyfully part with his hard-earned money in a tough economy! Wouldn’t a loving God understand that holding tightly to the resources one possesses is the practical thing to do when times are unstable!

The reality is that giving to the Lord, to the work of the church which is spreading the gospel and alleviating the suffering of man, actually blesses the one who gives. It allows him to be part of something greater than himself. It allows him to invest himself in the things the Lord cares about. It allows him to enter a level of partnership with Christ who paid it all in man's behalf that tightly grasping the resources in his possession can never give to him.