Sacred Dollars
Need help giving your money to charity?
One of the most difficult tasks for the believer in God to do is give away money — hard earned or inherited, it doesn’t matter.
There are so many reasons for this but they distill down to two words — control and unbelief. Two sides of the same personally perceived precious penny.
Our perceived personal wealth — described as the stuff of theft and deterioration — to God is a self-made prison cell — and he is about setting captives free to enjoy their deeper richer spiritual inheritance. After all, we are children of the truth and most gracious and benevolent King of kings and Lord of lords.
The whole sacrificial system of the Old Testament — giving good cattle to the priests at the tabernacle or temple to be slaughtered is actually not much different than dropping money in the collection plate at church. It fed the priests and their families who, by God’s instruction, gave up their rights to the land everyone else was given. Because the priests could live and prosper, they were available to minister to the people. They ministered to the people primarily by connecting them with God. How the people treated the priests was seen by God as how they treated him.
Today our money supports the lives of others, and if they aren’t vegetarians, this includes the meat section at the local grocery store.
Of course the more we give the more we seem to see. Our eyes open to greater needs both in others and ourselves. We find loving bonds to others apart from material equivalency. And we learn that it always comes back to bless the giver more. We never can out give God. After all, he gave us his son.
Do Not Be Anxious
And he said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.
Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest?
Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith!
And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you.
“Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Excellent article and scripture. In recent years, I increased my charitable giving and have been disappointed by the large increase in charitable solicitations from additional organizations. I believe that they must be selling my contact information. Perhaps, when I send a donation, I ask that they not sell my info….