Giving is a selfless act; unfortunately, humans are inherently selfish. But if more people chose to give, the world would be a much better place. And when you give, God blesses you. He rewards faithful givers. Quite simply, giving is love in action!
Once you learn to be a faithful giver, you will find that it will become a life changing experience. It shows a whole new obedience to God, it's basically a whole new lifestyle that will develop and that is awesome! The ability to love unconditionally, giving with absolutely no expectation to receive is amazing and very pleasing to God.
Romans 21 tells us, "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good". Giving is doing good. It forms part of this spiritual warfare. God loves us to give to others in order to help and gift them. Giving to others also helps us and our hearts. The devil hates this. He doesn't want us to give and spread joy this way, or in any other way. The devil will tap, tap, tap you to try to stop you from giving. But you need to be strong and not give in.
Getting into the spirit of giving totally transforms us: we have more joy and happiness in our lives, and when we give it takes us to a place where we are so much more like God's character. God, the awesome One who gave His one and only Son for us.
Tithing is an Old Testament (Malachi) principle. This does not however mean that the concept is outdated, far from it. But sadly many people use this fact as a reason not to tithe. This is sad as it means that they do not benefit emotionally from being a happy giver.
In the Old Testament tithing meant to give, by law, ten per cent of your income each week. This primarily meant money but could at times include things such as crop and cattle. The tithing law has never been abolished therefore it still stands. The question begs though that if we are to give 10% by law, what should we now be giving under grace?
As well as tithing our money, there are other things that we can tithe too, for example our love and our time. This will have untold changes for both yourself and others.
Even in times of hardship, we should still strive to tithe. Your heart needs to have a giving spirit in order for us to receive God's blessing. He wants giving to become an integral part of our nature.
Many people are bound up in bondage in the area of giving. Learning to give us life changing. If you pray to God to help you break free from this bondage, you will see very positive results.
Being a willing financial giver greatly shows where your priorities are. Time, talent or a listening ear can replace if necessary or preferably add on to our financial giving. In return, our sense of purpose increases, we get a feeling of satisfaction and of a new destiny.
It's great when people tithe and also give other things, but these things need to be given with the right motives. The correct motive is that we give to give, to help others with absolutely no expectation of receiving anything in return. This is the pure spirit of a giver, not just someone who gives.
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