If you’re like me when you hear the word giving you may think of:
Money
Time
Commitment
Budgets
Sacrifice
And especially in our current economy you may worry about how much you should give and whether we can make our budgets, whether it be at home or at church. And while it may be tempting to focus our thoughts on the quantity of our giving I think it may be more important to focus our thoughts on the quality of our giving.
What I mean by that is that I believe the heart of the giver is more important to God than the gift of the giver. There is a well known verse in 1 Corinthians chapter 13 that refers to giving and the heart of the giver that sometimes we overlook: 1 Cor 13:3
“If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing”
God is more concerned with relationship than he is with budgets and balance sheets. He is more concerned about the quantity of love in our hearts than the number of dollars in our collection plate.
In the words of Jesus himself in Matthew 5:23
“Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother, then come and offer your gift.”
Again we see, the heart of the giver is more important to God than the gift of the giver. That doesn’t mean that the gift we are giving is unimportant, because we do have budgets both at home and in the church, that require commitment, sacrifice, time and money. But as we give lets make sure that, first of all, our hearts are filled with love, and if we do that, I’m convinced that God will bless both the giver and the gift.
