Righteous Act #1 – Giving
“So when you give to the needy, do
not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on
the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received
their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand
know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then
your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. (Matthew 6:2-4)
Jesus’
teaching on righteous living begins with righteous giving. It is a good place
to start, after all, as a famous preacher once said, “Show me a man’s checkbook
and I’ll show you his priorities.” It doesn’t take long in today’s world to see
where your money goes – just go on the internet and pull up your bank
statements and credit card statements and you will quickly see what you spent
it on or to whom you gave it. Unless, of course, you give away a lot of cash,
which you can likely tally up in your head.
What did this little exercise tell
you? A little later in our study on the Sermon on the Mount we will get to the
place where Jesus says we can’t serve both God and money. For now, though, just
honestly ask yourself, do I give to the poor? Do I support my local church and
worthwhile ministries in my community and around the world? Am I being a good
steward of the money God has given me?
It is interesting that Jesus just
assumes that his followers will be regular givers. He doesn’t make a big deal
about it or command it; he just assumes it when he says, “When you give to the
needy…” rather than “If you give to the needy…” It is kind of a big assumption
if you think about it. Jesus is assuming both that his followers will have
enough money so that they can give and that they will have a heart that is
willing to give. It shows a lot of faith – faith in the Father to provide and
faith in believers to give.
It does take a lot of faith to give,
if you think about it. Probably one of the main reasons we don’t give is lack
of faith. We are afraid that if we give money away then we won’t have enough of
it for ourselves and we will wind up lacking or even destitute. We don’t
believe that our heavenly Father will take care of us, even though He has
promised that He would.
Another way that lack of faith keeps
us from giving is that we want to stand in as judge and jury on the lives of
the people that are needy. If past sins have put them in a hard place or
current bad habits cause them to spend the money foolishly, we take it as a
license not to give. And if an organization fails to be wise or uses money in a
way that we deem inappropriate, we use that as an excuse to not give to them
or, in some cases, to anyone at all. We let other people’s failures and our
lack of faith in God rob us of the joy of giving.
After
all, one of the great joy-givers in life is to give. As Jesus said, “It is more
blessed to give than to receive.” For when we give we are following in His
footsteps and giving ourselves away for the sake of others. God sees it and
rewards us with great joy and intimacy with Him; the people to whom we give are
blessed both materially and spiritually as we show them God’s love. It is a
win-win situation. But there is one caveat, one thing that must be avoided as
it can ruin everything.
That one thing is prideful
play-acting. Being a hypocrite, someone who acts one way but deep inside is
something else entirely. Giving money away so that you can get the attention of
man gets in the way of what God really wants to do in the lives of the giver
and the receiver. It all becomes a show, with trumpets blowing in Jesus’ day
and with the media attention or name on a plaque or whatever it might be in our
modern day.
So do your giving in secret, Jesus
says, so that no one knows except you. Sure, there might be others who find
out, like the one to whom you are giving or your spouse or family members or
close friends. But there won’t be the fanfare, the hand-shaking and
back-slapping, the prideful exaltation that comes as others congratulate you
and tell you how great you are. If the fanfare is what you are after, then you
have received your reward, the very thing that you were after.
But if you are giving to please God
and to demonstrate His love to others, then He will see and He will reward you.
To Him, the way that we give and our heart attitude as we give is more
important than the amount that we give. So give freely and secretly, knowing
that God will provide for your every need and His reward will be far better
than anything the world has to offer.
Pray with me:
Lord, help me to be like you when it comes to
righteous giving. Give me faith to not hold back but to trust you and give
generously in every occasion. Help me to give myself away, just as you did.
Forgive me for those times when I should have given but I didn’t. Forgive me
for those times when I gave just so I would look good in the eyes of others.
And Lord, bless these people who I know have needs and give me opportunities to
give to them…continue praying as you are led…
For further study, meditate on these Scriptures:
Acts 20:35 In everything I did, I showed you that by this
kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus
himself said: 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'"
Matt 6:24 "No one
can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he
will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and
Money.
Matt 6:25, 33 "Therefore
I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about
your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the
body more important than clothes? … But seek first his kingdom and his
righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Please use this blog for
personal devotional use and feel free to share it with friends and family.
However, all publishing rights are reserved. No reproduction or publication of
this blog is permitted without the permission of the author, Pastor Randy
Brockett of New Song
Foursquare Church
in Colorado Springs , Colorado
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