To give or not to give.

Giving is often an uncomfortable topic for congregations. I have to admit that I was one of those people. I tried to hold on to my money so tight. I was more than willing to give the church what I felt I could part with. My husband has always been the opposite. He is a financial giver from buying lunch for a friend to stopping at every lemon aid stand and making sure a kid makes something. The differences in he and me I have to admit bothered me greatly. So I asked God to change my heart. I wanted to be not only a giver but a cheerful one. It was not easy and at times it is still not easy. But as the saying goes nothing easy is worthwhile. The great thing is that when we do the things that God asks of us it always ends up blessing us as much as blessing others.
In today's economy I have heard many discuss their fears of salary cut and or lay offs. Many are concerned about how this will effect the Church tithes. I understand that in reality church giving will go down. What I do not understand is why we are not talking about going without cable, cell phones, hair and nail appointments. Is it just easy to cut God off? We are so use to having those things that we have begun to think of them as necessities and not luxury items. I did a search the other day on what the bible has to say about giving and I found one verse that really spoke to me. Malachi 3:10 "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse. Test me in this, says the Lord Almighty, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it." Now don't get me wrong I am not saying that a person should give and end up with no money for food or shelter. What I am saying is that in these days will we all have faith in the words of the Lord in Malachi. That we will weight the options and decided what is truly important. For if we hold those luxury items above our duty to God we only belittle the gift He gave us that special Christmas morning. We turn our backs to the innocent man that suffered on the cross to pay the price of our sinfulness.

Lord please touch and change our hearts. Let us give to you the things that are yours in the first place. May we make choices which will bring our hearts more like the heart of Jesus.