The Blessing of Giving Generously

March 10, 2008

By John W. Kennedy

National studies show that only one in 10 Christians tithes and that the average churchgoer of all denominations gives only 2 ½ percent of income to the church.

The key to giving lavishly to church, missions and parachurch ministries is understanding that all we have comes from God — and all we have belongs to God. If we are generous but grumpy it defeats the purpose of donating. As 2 Corinthians 9:7 says, “Each of you must make up your own mind about how much to give. But don’t feel sorry that you must give and don’t feel that you are forced to give. God loves people who love to give” (Contemporary English Version).

Some people believe we give money to God in order to be blessed by Him. While God does take care of those who tithe, our primary motivation should be to please God, not to try to finagle some kind of reward from Him.

Giving extravagantly to worthwhile causes doesn’t give us license to act irresponsibly with the resources God has entrusted to us. We can’t tithe on the one hand and charge debts on credit cards with reckless abandon with the other, expecting God to honor our behavior.

Patty and I started tithing early in our marriage. But there’s one period in our lives where God showed us the benefits of tithing as never before. God provided for us miraculously after I lost my job and the family’s primary income in 1990.

I had been fired from a small daily newspaper for helping to organize a pro-life group in town. The story about my firing spread quickly in the media — first on the Associated Press wire, then to the New York Times, Washington Post and USA Today. Eventually it made it to Christian publications such as Moody magazine, American Family Association Journal and the Christian Reader.

Before being fired a lot of prayer had gone into the possibility of losing my job over forming the pro-life group. Patty and I knew God wouldn’t abandon us, and He saw us through our time of need.

A few days after losing my job we began receiving checks in the mail from people all over the country, people we didn’t know but who had read about what happened. Those checks — $5, $10, $20, $50, some even as much as $100 — sustained us. We tithed off of each financial gift.

We still had Patty’s income — $37 a week as a part-time church secretary — and we tithed off that. By this time I drew $222 a week in unemployment benefits — and we tithed off that.

I was out of work for about 4½ months, until being hired as a copy editor of a big-city newspaper. The day I started my new job the checks from supporters around the country stopped. Coincidence? I think not. We come to understand that God can provide abundantly from resources we never imagined if we honor Him with what He entrusts us with. Even if we lose our livelihood.

— John W. Kennedy is news editor of Today’s Pentecostal Evangel and blogs at Midlife Musings (jkennedy.agblogger.org).