15 JOYFUL GIVING PRINCIPLES ( and one bonus principle)
by George W. Black
Giving Principle #1 – Give God your First Fruits, not your leftovers. This is giving out of our abundance, not out of what is left over after we have satisfied everyone else. God has promised that He will reward our commitment to Kingdom priority.
Our hearts are growing in giving, more than before. Let’s trust Him today with tithes and offerings from all our increase and we will see what God can and will do to bless us.
Prov 3:9-10 NLT “Honor the LORD with your wealth and with the best part of everything your land produces. {10} Then he will fill your barns with grain, and your vats will overflow with the finest wine.”
Giving Principle #2 – Give your tithes to the local church first as an “altar” on which to give all other offerings. Until this is done, offerings are not offerings, but rather misdirected tithes. Our obedience in this matter offers us the promise of open windows of God’s blessing from above.
Our hearts are growing in giving, more than before. Let’s trust Him today with tithes and offerings from all our increase and we will see what God can and will do to bless us.
Mal 3:10 NKJV “Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, That there may be food in My house, And try Me now in this,” Says the LORD of hosts, “If I will not open for you the windows of heaven And pour out for you such blessing That there will not be room enough to receive it.”
Giving Principle #3 – Give regularly to avoid getting behind and letting tithe and offering amounts grow beyond your faith to give. God has promised to prosper us as we include Him as our financial partner.
Our hearts are growing in giving, more than before. Let’s trust Him today with tithes and offerings from all our increase and we will see what God can and will do to bless us.
1 Cor 16:2 NKJV “On the first day of the week let each one of you lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper, that there be no collections when I come.”
Giving Principle #4 – Give obediently as an evidence of your faith, and of your submission to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Trusting God with our money is a practical expression of trusting God with our lives. Young Christians may not have matured sufficiently in their faith to trust God with a full Biblical tithe of ten percent. But every believer should give faithfully what they feel they can, and watch God quickly enlarge faith to where there is great joy and confidence in giving what God asks, and even more.
Our hearts are growing in giving, more than before. Let’s trust Him today with tithes and offerings from all our increase and we will see what God can and will do to bless us.
James 2:17-18 NLT “So you see, it isn’t enough just to have faith. Faith that doesn’t show itself by good deeds is no faith at all–it is dead and useless. {18} Now someone may argue, “Some people have faith; others have good deeds.” I say, “I can’t see your faith if you don’t have good deeds, but I will show you my faith through my good deeds.””
Giving Principle #5 – Give joyfully in anticipation of God’s blessing and future harvest. We start the miracle of harvest-time when we plant the seed God has given us for sowing.
Our hearts are growing in giving, more than before. Let’s trust Him today with tithes and offerings from all our increase and we will see what God can and will do to bless us.
Luke 6:38 NKJV “”Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.”
Giving Principle #6 – Give reverently, remembering that the tithe is holy, meaning that it is set apart for God’s service only, and we must never consume it upon ourselves. When we give God what is His, then He blesses what we have left. Ninety percent with His blessing always goes farther than one hundred percent without His blessing.
Our hearts are growing in giving, more than before. Let’s trust Him today with tithes and offerings from all our increase and we will see what God can and will do to bless us.
Lev 27:30 NKJV “‘And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree, is the Lord’s. It is holy to the LORD.”
Giving Principle #7 – Give graciously out of a personal responsibility for those who lead the church and attend to the concerns of the flock. A “welfare” mentality always says “let someone else take care of it”, but a Kingdom mentality always says “I want to do my part.”
Our hearts are growing in giving, more than before. Let’s trust Him today with tithes and offerings from all our increase and we will see what God can and will do to bless us.
1 Tim 5:17-18 NKJV “Let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and doctrine. {18} For the Scripture says, “You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain,” and, “The laborer is worthy of his wages.”
1 Cor 9:14 NKJV “Even so the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel.”
Giving Principle #8 – Give tithes and offerings as an expression of your covenant relationship with God. It is God’s desire that every born-again believer be joined or “added” to a local church for the purpose of spiritual growth, and participation in the great commission through our shared abilities and finance. This is TEAM MINISTRY. If we have entered into membership with this local expression of the body of Christ, then it should always be our desire to participate in the Biblical plan of stewardship.
Our hearts are growing in giving, more than before. Let’s trust Him today with tithes and offerings from all our increase and we will see what God can and will do to bless us.
Mat 6:21 NLT “Wherever your treasure is, there your heart and thoughts will also be.”
Giving Principle #9 – Give proportionately, as a percentage of what God blesses you with. The word “tithe” literally means a “tenth”, and is the Biblically prescribed manner in which God’s children should honor the Lord out of their material blessings. When we pledge a percentage of our income, the work of God is not forgotten even when we are away. And it means God gets a raise every time we get a raise. When we make God our partner in this way, He is able to trust us with even more.
Our hearts are growing in giving, more than before. Let’s trust Him today with tithes and offerings from all our increase and we will see what God can and will do to bless us.
Lev 27:30-32 NLT “”A tenth of the produce of the land, whether grain or fruit, belongs to the LORD and must be set apart to him as holy. {31} If you want to redeem the Lord’s tenth of the fruit or grain, you must pay its value, plus 20 percent. {32} The LORD also owns every tenth animal counted off from your herds and flocks. They are set apart to him as holy.”
Giving Principle # 10 – God gives us sowing seed and seed for bread that we eat. When harvest time comes it is important to know the difference. “Sowing seed” is not for eating. Often we may receive a blessing, a raise, a promotion, a return on income taxes or an investment, etc., and fail to see that this is God way of giving us seed for sowing into the Kingdom, and not just for ourselves. We may have prayed for God to help us give more to His work, and then not recognize the opportunities He gives us. He never asks us to give to diminish us, but only so that He may give us a harvest.
Our hearts are growing in giving, more than before. Let’s trust Him today with tithes and offerings from all our increase and we will see what God can and will do to bless us.
2 Cor 9:10 NKJV “Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness,”
Giving Principle # 11 – Give from a budgeted evaluation of your resources that balances spending in other areas so as to remain faithful to God in tithes and offerings. We must take care that debt not limit our ability to be faithful to God. If we cannot pay our tithes and give offerings, we have not budgeted properly and should begin a process to accomplish this.
Our hearts are growing in giving, more than before. Let’s trust Him today with tithes and offerings from all our increase and we will see what God can and will do to bless us.
1 Cor 16:2 NLT “On every Lord’s Day, each of you should put aside some amount of money in relation to what you have earned and save it for this offering. Don’t wait until I get there and then try to collect it all at once.”
Giving Principle # 12 – Give in faith for enlargement and increase. God has promised that the more generous we become toward Him, the more generous He can become toward us. Are you ready for a promotion in your finance? Are you willing to be faithful with God’s part when it comes?
Our hearts are growing in giving, more than before. Let’s trust Him today with tithes and offerings from all our increase and we will see what God can and will do to bless us.
2 Cor 9:6 NKJV “But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.”
Giving Principle #13 – Give to break the curse of selfishness and poverty, opening the floodgates of God’s covenant faithfulness. When we put God first in our finance, we are making Him our financial partner. This frees us from trusting money to be our source, and makes God our source for all blessings.
Our hearts are growing in giving, more than before. Let’s trust Him today with tithes and offerings from all our increase and we will see what God can and will do to bless us.
Mal 3:8-12 NLT “”Should people cheat God? Yet you have cheated me! “But you ask, ‘What do you mean? When did we ever cheat you?’ “You have cheated me of the tithes and offerings due to me. {9} You are under a curse, for your whole nation has been cheating me. {10} Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do,” says the LORD Almighty, “I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Let me prove it to you! {11} Your crops will be abundant, for I will guard them from insects and disease. Your grapes will not shrivel before they are ripe,” says the LORD Almighty. {12} “Then all nations will call you blessed, for your land will be such a delight,” says the LORD Almighty.”
Giving Principle #14 – Give to encourage the spirit of total-life-prosperity, and to break the power of fear and greed. Fear and greed are the enemies of Biblical prosperity.
Our hearts are growing in giving, more than before. Let’s trust Him today with tithes and offerings from all our increase and we will see what God can and will do to bless us.
Mat 6:21 NLT “Wherever your treasure is, there your heart and thoughts will also be.”
3 John 1:2 NKJV “Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.”
Giving Principle #15 – When trying to decide if we should tithe on our gross or net income, we have to be honest and ask ourselves if we want a gross or net blessing. If we earned the money, the first tenth is still holy to the Lord, whether we see it or not.
Our hearts are growing in giving, more than before. Let’s trust Him today with tithes and offerings from all our increase and we will see what God can and will do to bless us.
Lev 27:30 NLT “A tenth of the produce of the land, whether grain or fruit, belongs to the LORD and must be set apart to him as holy.”
BONUS EASTER GIVING PRINCIPLE – Easter Sunday is a special day to rejoice, as we bring a thanksgiving offering to God. The joy of the empty tomb reminds us that God so loved that He gave (Jn 3:16), and so should we. Give God your best today as a sign of your love and appreciation for all that forgiveness and salvation mean.
2 Chr 29:31 NLT “Then Hezekiah declared, “The dedication ceremony has come to an end. Now bring your sacrifices and thanksgiving offerings to the Temple of the LORD.” So the people brought their sacrifices and thanksgiving offerings, and those whose hearts were willing brought burnt offerings, too.”
God bless, GWB
