NT Guidelines: Give cheerfully

Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. - 2 Corinthians 9:7

God delights in the one who takes delight in giving.

All the leaders and all the people rejoiced and brought their tax and dropped it into the chest until it was full. - 2 Chronicles 24:10

This is a great testimony of a time when Joash was king and the temple was in need of repair.  Whenever the chest was filled they would empty it, return it, and soon it would be full again.

There is an ebb and flow when it comes to giving.  As one part of the body of Christ has a need and receive help, that same part, one day, will be able to supply and give to another who has need --

Your present abundance and their need, so that their abundance may be for your need, in order that there may be a fair balance. - 2 Corinthians 8:14

In all this I have given you an example that by such work we must support the weak, remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, for he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” - Acts 20:35

Why would Jesus say this?  Maybe because blessing usually affects three people while giving only blesses one. The three are the giver, the recipient and God.

If we find ourselves not being cheerful while giving, the problem will be found in our heart and the solution is in redirecting our heart, not withholding our giving. Our heart follows our treasures --

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. - Matthew 6:21

Put your treasures in God's Kingdom and a cheerful heart will eventually follow.




Guidelines for Giving

God's Guidelines for Giving

The New Testament Standard of Giving

The New Testament Pattern of “Giving”

Ten Principles of Christian Giving

Giving God's Way

Direct and profound words

For where your treasure is, there your heart [your wishes, your desires; that on which your life centers] will be also.

Matthew 6:21

What we do with our possessions is a sure indicator of what's in our hearts.

When you hear people say, "I want more of a heart for missions" be comfortable in responding, "Jesus tells you exactly how to get it.  Put your money in missions, and your heart will follow."

Related articles

• A heart in the right place and brightly burning faith
• Necklaces and Rings and All the Pretty Things... Oh How Charming They Seem!

Two treasuries

“Knowing the tendency of the human heart to become unduly attached to earthly goods, Christ warned against it. The "things" which the Father gives are to be understood as provisional merely and must never be considered our real treasure. The heart always returns to its real treasure, and if a man holds corn to be a real form of wealth his heart will be where his corn is. 

Many a man has his heart locked up in a bank vault, and many a woman has her heart in her jewel box or stored at the furrier's. It is a great moral tragedy when anything as wonderful as the human heart comes to rest on the earth and fails to rise to its own proper place in God and in heaven.

Treasure, incidentally, may be discovered by this fourfold test: (1) It is what we value most. (2) It is what we would hate most to lose. (3) It is what our thoughts turn to most frequently when we are free to think of what we will. (4) It is what affords us the greatest pleasure.”

A.W. Tozer (1897-1963), excerpt from “The Transmutation of Wealth” in Born After Midnight (Harrisburg: Christian Publications, 1959).

When money and possessions are spent on heavenly treasure, the equation changes radically. The investment takes on eternal value. This because God, His Word, and people are eternal, what will last is what is used wisely for God, His Word and His people.

Christ's primary argument against amassing material wealth isn't that it's morally wrong, but simply that it's a poor investment. Even if they escape moths and rust and thieves, they cannot escape the coming fire of God that will consume the material world.

"I value all things only by the price they shall gain in eternity."
John Wesley 

“I place no value on anything I have or may possess, except in relation to the kingdom of God. If anything will advance the interests of the kingdom, it shall be given away or kept, only as by giving or keeping it I shall most promote the glory of Him to whom I owe all my hopes in time or eternity.” - David Livingston

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose." - Jim Elliot

 Jesus vividly described what it's like when we discover true wealth --

“The kingdom of heaven is like a [very precious] treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid again; then in his joy he goes and sells all he has and buys that field [securing the treasure for himself]." Matthew 13:44

Note that the central focus is accumulation of heavenly treasures, not the renunciation of earthly treasures in Matthew 6:19-24.

"As he came naked from his mother’s womb, so he will return as he came; and he will take away nothing from all his labor that he can carry in his hand." - Ecclesiastes 5:15

Be not afraid when [an ungodly] man becomes rich,When the wealth and glory of his house are increased;
For when he dies he will carry nothing away;
His glory will not descend after him.
Though while he lives he counts himself happy and prosperous—
And though people praise you when you do well for yourself—
He shall go to the generation of his fathers;
They shall never again see the light.
A man [who is held] in honor,
Yet who lacks [spiritual] understanding and a teachable heart, is like the beasts that perish. - Psalm 49:16-20

Paul spoke about the Philippian church's financial giving --

Not that I seek the gift itself, but I do seek the profit which increases to your [heavenly] account [the blessing which is accumulating for you]. Philippians 4:17

God keeps an account open for us in heaven and every gift given for His glory is a deposit in that account.





The Two Treasuries