Wednesday Wisdom
November 18, 2020
Deuteronomy 14:22 – 15:11
The passage from Deuteronomy is a great passage about the NEED for giving 10% back to the Levites/Tabernacle so that the worship of God could endure through the Wilderness. Although Jesus doesn’t talk about tithing, he DOES speak about money quite a bit. But here’s the rub – it’s not about the money (necessarily), it’s about our ATTITUDE toward money.
Many people quote the proverb that says “money is the root of all evil.” Nope! The proverb actually says “the LOVE of money is the root of all evil” (1 Timothy 6:10). Selfishness and other attitudes are what get us into trouble with God when it comes to money, as well as anything else.
The Deuteronomy passage indicates that tithing (giving 10%) is the way to go but the New Testament stewardship issue says that EVERYTHING belongs to God. That is a huge difference (between 10% and ALL).
But talking about tithing is not bad. We understand that through tithing, or at least trying to tithe, we can learn other good values such as:
- Regularity – How much we give is not as important as giving regularly to the work of Jesus Christ in the world. We learn to give as we give week in and week out, month in and month out, year in and year out.
- Proportionality – some of us are blessed by God with much more than others. We are incredibly gifted with many resources here in the United States. And we learn that some can give “more” than others dollar-wise. BUT, we forget that someone who gives 10% on $10,000 ($1,000) is a more faithful person than someone who gives $1,000 when they make $100,000 (1%). It’s in the proportions.
- Priority – we learn to have gratitude for everything we have been given, then give back to the Lord out of that gratitude before we do anything else with the resources.
- Finally, we learn to Risk – we learn to live adventurously in faith. We live on trust that Christ is doing something, and that we are a part of it with our financial contributions. So, the question then becomes: Do you trust God at 1%, 3%, 5%, 10%, maybe more?
How much you trust God is the wellspring of our souls where we find our attitudes about money.
As we approach Thanksgiving, just remember that we should be grateful for ALL that we have been entrusted with by the Lord. Change your attitude this year, to be more grateful to the Lord in this season. THAT will change you and grow you in generosity toward others.
Pastor Brenda