For God loves a Cheerful Giver:

Recently I have been memorizing more verses from my Bible.  One of those verses has been 2 Corinthians 9:6-7, “Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.  Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” This is a good reminder that we each as Christians should think very much about what we want to donate to which particular cause.  

There have been many different causes that I personally have been approached to give with either time or money.    I believe that when a person has been blessed with money and resources, they are also then wonderfully blessed with the opportunity to give that money to help God’s message, justice, and peace spread throughout the world.  I will never forget once a person reminded me that the money that we have actually been given is the Lord’s money.  He created it, and he created our opportunity to have that money.  He made the jobs and the resources available to us.  Therefore when we are giving a donation, we are really giving money back to God.

If I am going to be completely honest in this time, I know there have been moments where I have been contacted to give money to a particular organization or a missionary, and I have not been the most thrilled.  There have been times when I have been texted by a missionary friend to ask me to speak to them, and I know that part of the conversation is going to be about finances and if I would be willing to finance a part of their mission work.  It can make me feel like all they want from me is my money.  I know that isn’t true, but it can be so very hard to ask someone to help with the finances, especially when they are going to be doing the work of God.  

At the same time, I can be the same way when I am completing the Dressember fundraiser.  If you have not read my blogs about the Dressember fundraiser, Dressember is when I wear a dress for the whole month of December and raise funds to help end human trafficking.  I am very passionate about this fundraiser, and I have a certain goal that I try to raise every year.  In order to raise those funds, I have to reach out to a lot of different people, and I do this through my social media feeds as well as by sending fundraising letters.  It is not the easiest thing to do, as it never is to ask anyone for money. I remember in those moments that I am not looking at people like money, but I am simply just asking for money in order to do God’s work.  

However, it is important that when we are given this chance to provide money to those in the world or organizations that have God’s heart, we spend a good time praying about this opportunity.  This provides us the chance to think about how we really want to be diligent in what we do for the Lord.  While we are aware that all the places could be good, we also want to make sure that we are wise and useful with the money the Lord has gifted us.  We don’t want to waste our gifts.  

Another purpose of praying over our money is that God uses the money to go further and prosper more than we could ever imagine on our own.  This is like when God used the five loaves of bread and the two fish and he was still able to feed over five hundred people.   God has the ability to take a very small blessing and make it something grand.  Again, when I am doing the Dressember fundraiser, I pray that the Lord would take the money that I have been given and help me make an impact in the world by ending human trafficking.  Every single dollar that has been donated or given to me, or that I donate myself makes a change in at least one person.  

However, it is important that lastly, we pray we use this money in a cheerful and loving way.  It can be very easy to do this kind of thing because we feel we have to.  This can be we feel we need to do the right thing, we want to look good to other Christians, we want to feel good about ourselves, or maybe we want all of those things.  Whenever we give money because we feel we need to, then we are not really doing this because of the love of God, and therefore committing an act of legalism.   That isn’t really fulfilling the calling of giving then that he has set out before us.  

The Lord can do great work through us.  It may just be a simple act of a small donation, but it really can go a long way.  I will end with one more story and that is the story of the woman who gave a small donation to the temple before Jesus was killed on Good Friday.  This can be found in your Bible in Mark 12: 41-44.  This woman was a poor woman who only had a few coins.  She was going after all the men who had high-paying jobs and were successful.  They gave a ton of money, but they were proud of the money they were giving.  They wanted it to be a show.  They wanted the accolades and the praise from society for giving so much to the Lord.  The woman just gave what she had in her possession.  She gave and then prayed to the Lord.  She wanted to praise God through going to the Temple and through giving a small donation.  In all ways that we can possibly be, be like the woman at the Temple.  Give what is in your heart and the Lord will do the rest.