I once read of a conversation between a hundred-dollar bill and a one-dollar bill. The hundred-dollar bill said, “I’ve had a good life—nice house, fast cars, and great vacations.”  The dollar bill said, “All I ever do is go to church, go to church, go to church.”  The hundred-dollar bill said, “What is church?” Unknown 

I’m afraid that one-dollar bills make it to the assemblies of the saints much more frequently than hundred-dollar bills do.  Let me ask you, how much do you give to the Lord?  I am not asking you to call me and give me an answer.  At the end of the day, what you give to God financially is only between you and Him.  I am asking this question to promote self-evaluation.  When it comes to giving, many in the Lord’s church fall short.

We should all realize that giving to the Lord is a command that must be kept (1 Corinthians 16:1-2).  Most churches of Christ do not emphasize giving nearly as much as the average denominational church, but do not let that cause you to ignore the importance of it.  How much you give says a lot about your degree of commitment to the Lord and His cause.

Proper giving begins with having the proper attitude toward it.   How you perceive giving to the Lord will determine what kind of giver you are.  Do you view it as a burden?  Do you view giving to God as a necessary but sad use of your money?  If that is your perception of giving to God, I can tell you right now that you probably do not give as you should.  So, what should our attitude toward giving be?

Paul tells us that we should view our giving as a matter of sowing and reaping (2 Corinthians 9:6).     

When we give to God financially, we are sowing seed.  To be a Christian is to be a spiritual farmer.  When a farmer harvests a crop, he uses that crop in a variety of ways.  He uses it to feed his family and meet his financial responsibilities, but there is something else that he does with the crop that he has harvested.  He sets some of it aside as seed corn, i.e., he separates seed from that crop that can be planted at the appropriate time to secure another crop the next season.   You see, the farmer views the sowing of seed as an investment in the future.

When it comes to giving to God, it should not be viewed as a burden, but as an opportunity to invest in our future, not simply from a physical and temporal standpoint, but from a spiritual and eternal standpoint (1 Timothy 6:17-19).

You may be wondering, at this point, how much you should give to the Lord to demonstrate your commitment to Christ and your love for His cause.  The truth is, we are not commanded to give a specific amount like God’s people of old.  We are simply commanded to give as we prosper  (1 Corinthians 16:2).  We do, however, have some scriptural guidelines.  First, in the Old Testament, God commanded His people to give a tenth of both their income and their property (Leviticus 30-32).  While we ARE NOT obligated to give a tenth of our possessions to God under the law of Christ, we know that God is not unreasonable; thus, giving a tenth can at least serve as a good benchmark.  While giving a tenth is not required, we know that giving 3% would not be giving as we have prospered.

Second, we should give bountifully.  Paul tells us that this is the only way we can expect to reap bountifully (2 Corinthian 9:6).  Again, while there is not a specific amount God has commanded us to give today, most of us can determine when we are giving bountifully, and when we are not.  If our main goal is to please God, and we truly love the cause of Christ.  We will be honest with ourselves and lay aside a proper amount that suggests that such is the case.

 As you wind down for the night, think about these things