‘The amount depends on how much the Lord has helped you earn.’ 1 Corinthians 16:2 TLB
Jesus said, ‘If you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?’ (Luke 16:11 NIV). In other words, if you are not faithful to Him with your finances, He will not trust you with greater blessings. What does it mean to be faithful in your finances? Paul writes: ‘On every Lord’s Day each of you should put aside something from what you have earned during the week, and use it for this offering. The amount depends on how much the Lord has helped you earn.’ That means three things:
1) Regular giving. Note the words ‘every Lord’s Day’. This is systematic giving, not sporadic giving. It is not, ‘I feel good today, so I’m going to give to God.’ If you try that with your mortgage lender, you will be without a house! You’re not supposed to give by impulse, but by a commitment to obey God’s Word.
2) Planned giving. ‘You should put aside something from what you have earned.’ If you’re married, sit down and discuss it with your partner and decide the amount you feel God wants you to give each week. If you don’t plan it, you will not give consistently.
3) Proportional giving. ‘The amount depends on how much the Lord has helped you earn.’ If God blesses you financially, you should prayerfully consider increasing your giving. Bottom line: you are to return to God a percentage of what He enables you to earn. When you do, He promises to increase you abundantly (see Malachi 3:10; 2 Corinthians 9:6-10)
11 So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?
10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.
Generosity Encouraged
6 Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 7 Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. 9 As it is written:
“They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor;
their righteousness endures forever.”[a]
10 Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness
