{"id":99,"date":"2019-03-29T09:42:46","date_gmt":"2019-03-29T14:42:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wmadisonchurch.com\/?p=99"},"modified":"2019-03-29T09:42:46","modified_gmt":"2019-03-29T14:42:46","slug":"the-reason-for-giving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.wmadisonchurch.com\/?p=99","title":{"rendered":"The Reason for Giving"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">2\nCorinthians 9:7<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Each\none must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or\nunder compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\tMoney\nis a useful thing.  Without it we would have a harder time surviving\nin this world.  We would have to hunt for our food and drink, build\nour own shelters and all of the pleasures we enjoy in this life would\nbe gone.  Needless to say we enjoy our money.  However, how many of\nus realize it is a gift from God?  In 1 Timothy 6:17, Paul tells\nTimothy that God gives us all things to enjoy.  This would include\nour money.  So many people in the world, Christians included, view\neverything in their possession to be theirs.  They worked for it and\nearned it so therefore it belongs to them.  We forget that God\ncreated literally everything and since that is true then all things\nbelong to Him.  What we have was given to us by God to look after and\nuse for a specific purpose.  We are nothing but stewards and what we\nhave we need to use as God, the true owner, directs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\tThis\nis no truer than with money.  There are so many ways that we can\nmisuse wealth and our pursuit of it can cause us to lose sight of the\ntrue goal.  God, in all His wisdom knew we would struggle with the\ntemptations money brings and gave us guide lines in how to use it. \nOne of the first uses that comes to mind is of course giving to the\npoor and many Christians emphasize this use.  However, one that we\noften over look and are reluctant to do is giving back to the Lord.  \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\tIn\n1 Corinthians 16 as well as 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, Paul deals with\nthis topic.  God has prospered us so we can survive in this world and\nthe church has its own needs that have to be met somehow.  We as the\nmembers of the church should be willing to give of ourselves so that\nthe work we have dedicated ourselves to can prosper.  However, many\njust see giving as something we do on Sunday and do not know the\nreasons why we give.  In this article we will address a few of the\nreasons why we do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>We\n\tgive so the work of God may continue: <\/strong>As\n\thas already been stated, the church while on earth has a work that\n\tneeds doing.  As with everything else here, it requires money to do\n\tit.  Without money we could not provide study material as easily, be\n\table to fund preaching trips and it would be harder to find a place\n\tto meet.  Also, let us not forget that preachers need to make a\n\tliving somehow and their funds come also from the church treasury (1\n\tCorinthians 9:1-14).  Without funds being offered, it would at the\n\tvery least be harder for the church to function the way it should.\n\t<\/li><li><strong>We\n\tgive so needy saints may be cared for: <\/strong>Many\n\twant to see the church&#8217;s treasury as a means to help all the needy\n\tregardless if they are Christians or not. While this is indeed a\n\tgood work that many Christians, the author included, could improve\n\ton, it is not a proper use of the Lord&#8217;s treasury.  The church is\n\tnot here to provide for the physical needs of the world but the\n\tspiritual.  However, this does not mean that the church&#8217;s funds do\n\tnot help those in need but those individuals are Christians.  In\n\tevery example we see in scripture (Acts 4:32-37; 6:1-7; 1\n\tCorinthians 16:1-4; 2 Corinthians 8, 9; 1 Timothy 5:3-16) the money\n\twas sent to needy saints and in the passage in 1 Timothy 5, we see\n\tsome qualifications to receive the money.  The Lord&#8217;s money is not\n\tto be handed out to whoever comes and asks for it.\n\t<\/li><li><strong>We\n\tgive to show our devotion: <\/strong>God\n\tloves a cheerful giver and what better person to give our money to\n\tthan Him.  As God gives us all things, He also wants us to give to\n\tHim.  If we hoard our money and only give a bare minimum back to\n\tGod, what does that show about ourselves.  It reveals that we love\n\tour money more than we love God.  When we really think about it, we\n\tare stealing from God, keeping back from Him what He truly deserves.\n\t It is true that God does not give us an exact amount to give but we\n\tneed to examine ourselves and see if what we are giving is truly the\n\tbest we can do.\n<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\tGiving\nis indeed a commandment from God.  He expects it from us and we as\nChristians should not only be willing to but want to.  We said\nearlier that God does not give a particular amount we need to give\nbut if we hold back when we could give more, what is our motivation\nin doing so?  This does not mean that we have to give half our\npaycheck every week and in fact we do need to be careful that our\nmotivation to give much is not to be seen by men, but we still need\nto ask ourselves if we could be giving more.  Whatever the case, let\nus never be reluctant to give anything to God, great or small.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>2 Corinthians 9:7 Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. Money is a useful thing. Without it we would have a harder time surviving in this world. We would have to hunt for our food and drink, build our own [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.wmadisonchurch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.wmadisonchurch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.wmadisonchurch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.wmadisonchurch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.wmadisonchurch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=99"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.wmadisonchurch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":100,"href":"http:\/\/www.wmadisonchurch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99\/revisions\/100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.wmadisonchurch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=99"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.wmadisonchurch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=99"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.wmadisonchurch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=99"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}