Scripture Reference 1 Corinthians 2

And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. ² For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

³ I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. ⁴ My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, ⁵ so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.

2 Cor. 9: ⁶ Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. ⁷ Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. ⁸ And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.

Life Lesson: Generosity is not something we do for God, it is something we do in response to God! Nothing we have or possess is ever really ours to give away, all of it belongs to God and therefore we express our love for and our faith in God by what we do with it.

-David acknowledged this truth when he prayed, 2 Chron. 29: ¹⁴ “But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand. … ¹⁶ Lord our God, all this abundance that we have provided for building you a temple for your Holy Name comes from your hand, and all of it belongs to you.”    

It is for this reason that the Lord accused the people of Israel of robbing Him by refusing to honor Him with their tithes and offerings, Mal. 3: ⁷ Ever since the time of your ancestors you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord Almighty.

“But you ask, ‘How are we to return?’ ⁸ “Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me. “But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’ “In tithes and offerings. ⁹ You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me. ¹⁰ Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.”  This is one of the only places in Scripture where God invites us to test Him!

When we willfully choose to withhold our time, talents, financial resources, worship, communion, or fellowship from the Lord we are in fact robbing God!  Everything we have, no not just 10 percent, all of it belongs to God! 100 percent! Yet God only asks us to honor Him with a portion of that which He has bestowed upon us and still that is too much for many professing believers! God lavishes His gifts and blessings upon us but He has told us in His Word that those who lack faith and withhold from God will reap sparingly! How can God bless the faithless? Those who exercise their faith by giving cheerfully to God will reap bountifully! Why do we fail to see it!?  When we give generously we are acting like our Heavenly Father who has given us the priceless gift of His Son! When we fail to give, we fail to believe God and we show contempt for His incredible Generosity to us!