How to Motivate Generosity: Re-Teaching 6 Principles of Christian Giving

Christians sit on untold quantities of wealth never before imagined. Even the average Christian teenager in America has more disposable cash income -- $1,500 -- than 50 percent of the world’s population.

Yet, while our wealth has increased, most Christian leaders of the last few generations have ignored teaching the biblical imperatives of giving.

This departure is seriously impacting our ability to further the gospel to a hurting, confused and broken world. A materialistic undertow is threatening the spiritual vitality and financial stability of Christians and Christian ministries everywhere.

Over the years, I’ve been privileged to speak on giving across America and on five continents. During this time, I’ve heard many personal accounts of faithful giving to the Lord and the blessings that have come as a result. In a desire to sound the trumpet for biblical stewardship, I would like to share some of those stories while articulating six principles of Christian giving that must be reissued in our generation.

1. Give to God First

After one giving sermon, an older man told me how, 50 years earlier, he and his wife had made a commitment to give God the first portion of their income. Praying over their decision, they began giving to God first anyway, even knowing that by the end of the third week of every month they’d be out of money.

But God provided faithfully month after month and year after year. He creatively cared for their family through odd jobs, leading others to share clothing or homegrown vegetables, a bonus or overtime pay from work, close-out-priced items in stores -- and the list goes on.

By making giving to the Lord’s work their first financial priority, this couple learned more about the love, care, and the reality of God as their Heavenly Father than through any other spiritual discipline.

2. Give to God Systematically

When leading a Sunday school lesson on giving, I encouraged 8-year-old Alex to set up three jars: one marked "God’s money," the second marked "savings," and the third labeled "spending money." Whenever Alex was given money, he could put the first portion in God’s jar and the second and third portions in the savings and spending jars.

A few months later, as my wife and I prepared for a five-week ministry trip to India, Alex came to me and pushed three crumbled dollar bills into my hand -- it was “God’s money."

Some people have opened an additional bank account to separate their giving from their household expenses. Others track their finances with bookkeeping accounts and regularly make certain they’re caught up with their giving. Some Christians in India set aside the first of their rice and eggs for their pastor’s family.

Christians who don’t have a regular way of laying aside the first of what they receive for the Lord often feel pressed and confused when it comes to giving. Many people making comfortable incomes experience no joy in giving because they haven’t determined how they’ll give.

3. Give to God Cheerfully

II Corinthians 9:8 tells us that God loves a cheerful giver. When Nancy was abandoned by her husband and left to support their three children on the $25 a week he sent for groceries, she was excited that she could finally give to the Lord’s work, as her husband never allowed it before.

Out of her grocery money, she gave to God -- though the small amount she had could never cover her family’s living expenses. But God provided Nancy with an assistant position to a photographer of cookbooks. When the photo sessions were over, the photographer gave Nancy all the food. Her cupboards were full with the provisions God provided for her family.

4. Give to God Eternally

Visiting with an elderly couple who had financially supported a Christian camp for more than 40 years, the wife expressed feelings of failure over not being used by God during her lifetime. She hadn’t led anyone to the Lord; as a result, she feared her life was a waste. She didn’t realize that her family’s giving had been used by God to reach thousands of people.

5. Give to God Expectantly

Our reasons for not giving to the Lord might center around our circumstances, our debts and financial obligations, or our lack of income. Under the surface, however, we don’t give because we don’t trust God enough as our provider.

In Malachi 3, God says: 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 you will not have room enough for it. God promises to prove Himself to us as we choose to trust Him in our giving.

God desires to bless and care for us. But as we choose not to acknowledge Him in our giving, the money we try to hold onto slips through our fingers and is never enough, regardless of our income.

6. Give to God Proportionately

Several years ago, my wife and I grew frustrated in our Christian giving. We were setting aside the first 10 percent of our income for the Lord’s work, but we felt pressed when trying to decide how much to give to Christian causes, in addition to our local church.

Then I read in I Corinthians 16:2: On the first day of each week let each one of you lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper.The next Sunday, we started counting our blessings from the past week together. We discovered that, in addition to my salary check, God had blessed us through friends taking us out to dinner, a birthday gift of cash, payment from a speaking engagement, and a used five-speed bike given to me by a co-worker. We assigned a dollar value to each item and found that the "blessing items" totaled $150. We then set aside 10 percent of my salary for our church and 10 percent of the week’s blessings to support our missionary friends.

If you’ve ever owned a vest, you know how important it is to get the first button fastened correctly. When the first button is in the wrong place, every other will be out of order, and you’ll look foolish.

The same is true of your finances: If you don’t fasten your giving button first, all your other money buttons (saving, spending and investing) will be out of order. You’ll be confused and look foolish -- before God.

Brian Kluth is a senior pastor and founder of www.maximumgenerosity.org , a website offering a wealth of generosity materials and resources for pastors, church committees and congregations. Kluth publishes a free monthly newsletter on generosity issues for 13,000 pastor and church leaders. He also wrote a devotional booklet -- A 40-Day Journey to a More Generous Life -- that’s being used by churches of all sizes for small groups, Sunday schools, annual stewardship campaigns, and building-fund drives.

This article was excerpted with permission from the tract, Understanding the Grace of Giving, © by Brian Kluth