How do we determine how much offerings we should give to God?
What is a God pleasing proportion? Or more correctly, how much of God’s money, which he has entrusted to us, shall we keep back for ourselves and our various needs? After all, it is His money, merely given to us to be used in His service for the benefit of all people.
Here are a series of directions from the Bible to guide us in the answers to these questions
Give of your first fruits.
Proverbs 3: 9 “Honour the Lord by making Him an offering from the best of all that your land produces. If you do, your barns will be filled with grain, and you will have too much wine to be able to store it all.”
First fruit giving means that we set aside God’s portion first and that we regulate our own expenditure according to what is left. It does not mean that we take care of our own needs first and then give to God from what is left over.
Give in a venture of faith and God’s blessings await us.
Faith accepts the fact that God will certainly not allow us to be in want because we honoured Him first as the giver.
2 Corinthians 9:6 “Remember that the person who sows few seeds will have a small crop: the one who sows many seeds will have a large crop.”
2 Corinthians 9:8 “And God is able to give more than you need, so that you will always have all you need for yourselves and more than enough for every good cause.”
Phillipians 4:19 “And with all his abundant wealth through Jesus Christ, my God will supply all your needs.”
Give to the Lord, not to a budget or the Church as an institution
Psalm 96:8 “Praise the Lord’s glorious name; bring an offering and come into his temple.”
An increase in income means an increase in giving.
The first fruits plan refers not only to regular income but the monetary gifts, inheritances, profits from real estate and share sales etc. In other words, from everything we receive we set aside a portion for God – first.
Give regularly – not haphazardly.
2 Corinthians 10:7 “Each one should give, then as he has decided not with regret or out of a sense of duty; for God loves the one who gives gladly.”
1 Corinthians 16:2 “Every Sunday, each of you must put aside some money, in proportion to what he has earned, and save it up, so that there will be no need to collect money when I come.”
How much? In proportion to his gifts to us.
Mark 12:41 onwards. The widow’s mite. All the others gave what they’ll never miss. She gave extravagantly what she couldn’t afford – she gave her all.
2 Corinthians 8:12 “If you are eager to give, God will accept your gift on the basis of what you have to give, not on what you haven’t.”
Our giving to God can include a range of different needs as follows.
- Supporting our local congregation including pastors, mission employees, administration and church facilities.
- Supporting the mission and ministry of our National Lutheran Church and Districts, covering those ministries unable to be done on a local congregational level eg mission resource assistance, children, youth and family ministry, chaplaincy in tertiary, hospitals and prisons, aboriginal ministry, Australian Lutheran College for the training of pastors and lay workers and Lutheran Media ministry.
- Lutheran and other denominational welfare and overseas aid charities such as Lutheran Community Care, Australian Lutheran World Service, Centacare, Anglicare, Uniting Care, Christian Blind Mission etc
So when preparing your budget, spend some time in thought and prayer to determine what proportion of your income can be given to God for the benefit of all people in our world and that they may come to know the saving grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Prepared by Mel Zerner
Christian Money Management 