Giving For a Reason

I recently read something that made me think about WHY I give more than WHAT I give. In some ways it is a comfort, but it was also convicting. By ‘giving’ I am not referring just to financial donations, but more to the way I share all of the gifts I’ve been given - my time, my talents, and my love. The comment was that how much we give away is irrelevant if our motive isn’t right. This goes beyond God’s love for cheerful givers, because sometimes we may cheerfully give for all the wrong reasons.

If God is not leading our decisions about where and how much and what to give, He won’t bless the results. And that is what convicted me. Tithes and offerings have been a habit for me for long enough that I take those for granted. I cheerfully ask God to direct where my money should go to meet the needs He sees. Where I stumble is the giving of my time and talents. More than once I have felt I didn’t have enough to give, or wanted to give of myself for all the wrong reasons.

God will never ask us to give more than we are able. That doesn’t mean we give in our own strength, it means that ‘whatever God calls us to do, He also equips us to do’. I have to remind myself of this frequently, since I tend to run off in my own strength and wonder why I fell flat almost as often as I balk at giving what I believe God is leading me to give.

If pride, guilt, a desire for attention or gain, or even fear, is motivating me, then whatever I give is irrelevant at best, and destructive at worst. I can’t count the number of times I have given of my time or energy because I felt obligated, only to have it blow up in my face. Clearly my motive was wrong in those situations, but I couldn’t admit it at the time. As a stay at home mom, I tend to think that I ‘should’ have time and energy for all of what I think are worthy goals. It is much easier for me to tell others not to ‘should’ on themselves than it is for me to recognize it in my own actions.

The reality is that I am not the superwoman I wish I was. I am not able to do many of the things I see others doing, and I tend to dismiss the ways I can contribute. I want to argue with God, and say that what He asks of me is not important, or not enough. He gently reminds me that if I am doing it for Him, it matters. For whatever reason, he has placed me here and now, and what matters isn’t how much I accomplish but for whom I am accomplishing it in the first place. Some days it feels like very little, so I have to remind myself that if I’m following His lead, God can take my meager offerings and create something wonderful.