Dear Cornerstone Family,
As we’re passing through a season in the life of our church where the offerings to the Lord are lower in amount, I confess to you, I’ve been tempted to worry about numbers. But this week the Lord convicted me to pray. Not so much for provision; I’ve been praying for that. But for what God cares about most—the spiritual fruit and joy of God’s people as they give, regardless of whether it’s a great sum or just a few copper coins (Matthew 12:41-44).
As my prayers shifted, it sparked further reflection on the ups and downs in my own journey in giving. When I first started making money, I knew a portion of my earnings should be given to the Lord and the work of the church. But at 15 years of age, I loved having money of my own. I loved the feel of having worked hard for money and the freedom money provided. To have money felt powerful. Though I probably only had a few hundred dollars to my name, I was experiencing for the first time the intoxicating influence money can have over our lives.
Eventually, I started giving to the Lord, more from duty than desire. But it felt good to give. Truthfully, I felt good about myself being a giver. Again, it felt satisfying. I was doing something good.
Then, in my Bible reading one day, I was stopped in my tracks by 1 Corinthians 13:3, “If I give away all that I have…but have not love, I gain nothing.” Nothing! Really? God doesn’t care all that much about my acts of giving or the amount I give? He apparently wasn’t even that interested in the fact I’m meeting actual needs, though clearly that was important. No, what mattered most to Him was my motivation—the why behind my giving.
After some reading and reflection, I realized that God is interested in the why behind our giving because He’s after our hearts, not our money. God doesn’t need our money. Even when we give to the church, we’re giving money that is already His (see Psalm 24:1)!
But if God doesn’t need our money, why then do we give? That’s an important question with a simple answer. We give because God wants every fiber of our being and every part of our lives offered up to Him in worship (Romans 12:1). And one of the main ways we do that is through cheerful giving to His church (2 Corinthians 3:7). As Jamie Dunlap once wrote, “When we gladly part with our money in order to follow Christ, it proclaims how good and worthy He is.” Indeed, it does—and nothing is more important than that. Your servant,
