Motivation for Giving

We love God because He first loved us. Our giving is in response to

His amazing gift of Jesus to us. In fact, we are told, “The Lord does

not need our offerings. We cannot enrich Him by our gifts. Says the

psalmist: ‘All things come of Thee, and of Thine own have we given

Thee.’ Yet God permits us to show our appreciation of His mercies by

self-sacrificing efforts to extend the same to others. This is the only

way in which it is possible for us to manifest our gratitude and love

to God. He has provided no other.”—Ellen G. White, Counsels on

Stewardship, p. 18.

When we surrender “our” money to Jesus, it actually strengthens our

love for Him and for others. Therefore, money can be a real power for

good. Jesus spent more time talking about money and wealth than just

about any other subject. One verse in every six in Matthew, Mark, and

Luke is about money. The gospel’s good news is that God can deliver

us from the misuse and love of money.

Read Matthew 6:31–34 and Deuteronomy 28:1–14. What does God

promise to do for us if we obey Him? Is it selfishness on our part to

claim the promises of God?

Our offerings are an evidence of our willingness to sacrifice self

for God. Making an offering can be a deeply spiritual experience, an

expression of the fact that our lives are wholly surrendered to God as

our Lord. To us, as an English idiom says, it is “putting our money

where our mouth is.” You can say you love God, but generous offerings

help reveal (and even strengthen) that love.

An offering comes from a heart that trusts in a personal God who

constantly provides for our needs as He sees best. Our offerings rest

on the conviction that we have found assurance of salvation in Christ.

They are not an appeasement or a search for God’s acceptance. Rather,

our offerings flow from a heart that has accepted Christ by faith as the

only and sufficient means of grace and redemption.

Read 2 Corinthians 9:6, 7. What is the Lord saying to us here? What

does it mean to give as one “purposes in his heart” (NKJV)? How

do we learn to give cheerfully?