Keep It Simple

He that giveth, let him do it with simplicity.

- Romans 12:8 KJV

Whenever I meet someone who says, "Everything I have belongs to God," I confess I get a little skeptical. I'm always leery of such folks. I have found they usually say things like this as an excuse for not giving anything to God. It may all belong to God, but God never sees any of it.

But I also know people who, beyond all doubt, have a giving nature. They have the proper attitude toward material things; possessions are not terribly important to them. God has blessed them with many talents and resources and they are eager to use them for the Lord. They view themselves as stewards of God's possessions, and, therefore, they are free and gracious in their giving.

We probably all know people of whom the phrase is true, "He would give you the shirt off his back." When you are in their homes, no more do you express admiration for something they have than you find it at your doorway, gift wrapped, and addressed to you. They have the gift of giving.

I knew a fellow from Laguna Beach who definitely had the gift of giving. One night as he was walking home, a stranger walked up beside him and stuck a gun in his ribs. "Give me everything you've got," he demanded. My friend apologized and said, "I'm sorry. I have only five dollars - will you take a check?" Now, that's the gift of giving.

The Law of Giving

Our universe operates under both physical and spiritual laws. As gravity is a physical law, so is the law of giving a spiritual law. Jesus said, "Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you" (Luke 6:38). Paul said it this way: "He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully" (II Corinthians 9:6).

This law of giving is demonstrated in agriculture. If you plant a field of corn and are frugal in the planting of seed - perhaps you plant each seed two feet apart instead of six inches - you'll reap a sparse crop. If you sow sparingly, you're going to reap sparingly. But if you sow bountifully, you'll also reap bountifully.

That is exactly God's law of giving. A lot of times it is difficult to understand how these spiritual laws operate. And because we don't see how they could possibly function, we say, "Since I can't understand how that works, I'm keeping my money."

But do you understand how electricity works? Probably not, but I'll bet you don't mind using it. We don't understand the law of gravity, either. We also know that mass attracts, but we don't know why it attracts. We can measure the force of the attraction and we know that the larger the mass, the greater the attraction - but we don't know why. Yet we recognize gravity as a law of nature, and so we are very careful to obey it. We're don't jump off of twelve-story buildings just because we don't understand how the law works. We respect the law, and conduct ourselves accordingly.

It's the same way with the spiritual laws of God. They work in ways that we can't really understand, but we'd be wise to respect them. That's certainly true with the law of giving.

Jesus says, "Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over ... For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you." If you give by the teaspoon, you'll receive by the teaspoon. Give with a shovel, and you'll receive with a shovel. Give generously, and you'll receive generously. Whatever measure you use to give, that same measure will be given back to you.

In Romans 11:35, Paul asks, "Who has first given to Him and it shall be repaid to him?" In other words, "Show me a case where man has given to God and God didn't give back several times over."

People have told me, "Chuck, we just can't afford to tithe." Well, I can't afford not to tithe. I wouldn't dream of withholding from God what He tells me is His.

Through the prophet Malachi, God asks, "Will a man rob God?" The people respond, "In what way have we robbed You?" And God replies, "In tithes and offerings." God then encourages the nation to "bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and prove Me now in this ... if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it" (Malachi 3:8-10).

If we give to God what is God's and what God requires, then the Lord has promised He will pour out blessings to numerous to contain. As Malachi tells us, this is a spiritual law you can test. Give it a try And when you do so, you'll discover that it works. The more you give, the more God brings back to you. Try it, you'll like it.

How Are We to Give?

The Bible gives us several guidelines about how we are to give. Let's consider just seven of them.

1. Give with simplicity.

Paul said, "He that giveth, let him do it with simplicity" (Romans 12:8, KJV). Some people make their giving so complicated that it's hard to receive it. A fellow from Houston, Texas, recently sent me a letter containing two checks, one signed and the other (larger) one, unsigned. He took issue with an article I had written for a Christian magazine, and listed about ten questions for me. He said if I answered those ten questions to his satisfaction, he would sign the larger check. I returned both of his checks, and included answers to the ten questions - along with a little note: "I'm sure I didn't answer your questions to your satisfaction because I'm not telling you what you want to hear. So keep your checks." This man didn't want to give with simplicity; his gifts came with strings attached.

About 30 years ago a church in Huntington Beach was really beginning to grow. It met in a very old building right downtown, across from the police department. The church had a young, aggressive, excellent pastor, and was growing along with the town's population.

The church had no parking lot - only street parking was available - because an added educational unit consumed just about every inch of space on the little downtown lot. But the church had an option on about 15 prime acres, and the plan was to sell the building downtown, buy this acreage, and build a new facility in the heart of the new growth area. The pastor came over to my house to show me the plans and the details. It was all very exciting.

Then, one of the elders in the church spoke up. "When my family gave this property to the church, we had a clause put in the deed stipulating that if ever this property was sold, it would revert back to the family," he declared. "Thus, if you sell this property, it becomes the family's and you can't use the money to buy a new church. This church has to stay where it is." Now, that's not giving with simplicity. That's giving with strings attached.

As a result, my pastor friend got so discouraged he resigned from the church. As far as I know, that church is still on a little lot with no parking in downtown Huntington Beach, and it's struggling. What a tragedy. Giving with strings attached eventually caused major problems for the church.

If you give, give. Don't put strings on your giving. Do it with simplicity. Keep it simple. Don't make giving complicated.

2. Give without calling attention to yourself.

When we give, we're not to do so ostentatiously Jesus said that you need to be careful how you give, to make sure you don't draw attention to yourself. If you give to be seen by others, you will already have received your reward in full; that's all you'll ever get. If your motive is to have people say, "Oh my, isn't he wonderful? Isn't he generous? Isn't that marvelous what he's doing?" then that's your reward. You already have everything you're going to get. Jesus said, "When you give, don't be like the Pharisees who like to sound a trumpet before them so that everybody knows what they're giving" (see Matthew 6:1,2). I don't know if the Pharisees actually hired trumpeters to precede them as they dropped their money into the treasury, but we do know they made a big to-do. They gave with a lot of show in order to impress people.

Jesus commanded us to steer clear of their example. He said, "When you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly" (Matthew 6:3,4).

3. Give willingly, from the heart.

When the children of Israel were preparing to make the tabernacle, God gave to Moses the design of all the fixtures that were to be created - furnishings made with silver, gold, precious stones, and special types of cloth. This was not a poor man's tabernacle; it called for the best the people had. The Lord said to Moses, "Speak to the children of Israel, that they bring Me an offering. From everyone who gives it willingly with his heart you shall take My offering" (Exodus 25:2).

God didn't want anybody to give who wasn't giving from their heart. God never wants a person to feel pressured to give to Him. Whatever you give to God, you should give only that which you can give willingly, from your heart.

The beautiful thing about this story in Exodus is that the people had a heart to give, and began to bring in their gold and their silver and their jewelry to make the tabernacle. The women even gave their mirrors of highly polished brass for use in making the brazen altar! That's really a sacrifice.

Finally, those who were counting and weighing all the gifts spoke to Moses. "The people bring much more than enough for the service of the work which the Lord commanded us to do," they said (Exodus 36:5). So Moses had a commandment proclaimed throughout the camp: "Let neither man nor woman do any more work for the offering of the sanctuary" (Exodus 36:6). Incredible as it may seem, they had to restrain the people from bringing more. Not only was the amount collected enough to construct the tabernacle, it was actually too much! That's what happens when God moves upon the hearts of His people to give.

4. Give cheerfully.

Paul instructed the Corinthians that they should not give grudgingly (II Corinthians 9:7). I can surely understand that. I know how I would feel if I came over to your house to borrow a cup of sugar, and afterwards, I heard from all my friends about how angry you were over giving it to me. Although you told me I didn't need to replace it, you're complaining to everyone you meet that I didn't return it. I'd be tempted to take you a five-pound pack, dump it on your front porch, and say, "Take your lousy sugar."

If we don't like it when people give grudgingly to us, think how God must feel. If you're griping about what you're going to give to God, then keep your money. I'm sure God is saying, "Keep the lousy stuff. I don't need it." God doesn't want it if it's given grudgingly or out of sheer duty. Paul said, "Not grudgingly, or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver." I like the Greek word he uses for "cheerful." It's the term hilaros, which eventually dropped into English as the word "hilarious." That's the kind of giving God wants from us.

In the Old Testament they called this kind of giving a "free will offering" to the Lord. Every man gave freely. In the same way, Jesus said to His disciples, "Freely you have received, freely give" (Matthew 10:8). Paul said, "Let each one give as he purposes in his heart" (II Corinthians 9:7). Give of your own free will an amount that you've decided upon. Never give out of pressure or constraint, because then you will be prone to begrudge what you're giving.

Jesus indicated it isn't the amount that's important. One day He was watching the people putting their money into the temple treasury. He saw the wealthy parading by in all their pomp and circumstance, dropping in their large gifts. But when one little widow shuffled by and dropped in two mites - a quarter of a cent - Jesus turned to His disciples and said, "Did you see that? She gave more than all the rest, because they merely gave from their surplus. This woman gave of her very livelihood; that's all she has" (see Mark 12:41-44).

In the Lord's eyes, it wasn't the amount given that was important, but the heart behind the giving, and what it cost to give. The Lord seems to love sacrificial giving. Yet if a person has the gift of giving, he doesn't look at it as a sacrifice. He thinks, I'll give this to the Lord. I wish I had more to give.

As you purpose in your own heart, the Bible says, so give. That's something between you and God, for God loves a cheerful giver.

5. Give honestly.

Don't make a pretense about giving more than you really are, because the Lord doesn't appreciate that. Remember the story of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5? They violated this principle and paid for it with their very lives. God doesn't like it when we pretend to give more than we really are. You don't have to give everything; God doesn't require that. But He hates hypocrisy - just ask Ananias and Sapphira.

6. Give freely.

Jesus said, "Freely you have received, freely give." The psalmist said, "I will freely sacrifice to You; I will praise Your name, O Lord, for it is good" (Psalm 54:6).

Did you know that the word "give" and its related forms are used in the Bible 1,981 times? We might infer from this that God has a lot to say about our giving, and that would be true. But did you know that the vast majority of these references speak not of what we give to God, but of what God has given to us? It's true, probably on a ratio of five to one.

Our primary example for giving should be Jesus Himself. As Paul said, "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich" (II Corinthians 8:9).

R.G. LaToumeau certainly followed his Lord's example. Back in the '40s and '50s, this sharp, innovative fellow made a fortune inventing and manufacturing heavy-duty earth-moving equipment. When he started his business he made a covenant with God to give ten percent of all his profits to the Lord. As time went on and he began to be blessed more and more, LaTourneau made a new covenant to give God twenty percent. As the business continued to increase he raised it to thirty, then forty, then fifty, then sixty, and by the time he went home to be with the Lord, he was giving ninety percent to the Lord's work all over the world. Ninety percent. God had so blessed him that the ten percent he kept for himself was more than enough to live on. He learned that God simply won't be outgiven. We give to God of our resources, but in reality we're only giving back to God what is His already. What do I have except what I've been given by God? So if God has given it to me, then it really belongs to Him. So if I give it back to Him, I'm only giving back what is His already.

My own attitude on giving has changed through the years. It used to be, How much of my money can I afford to give to God this month? Now my attitude is, How much of God's money dare I spend on myself this month? All "my" money is God's; I'm only giving back to Him what is His. He has made me a steward over His goods for a short while. I want to give a good accounting of my responsibility in spending that which He has placed in my hands.

7. Give because of love.

Whether we are giving to God or giving to someone in need, our giving must be motivated by love. Paul said, "Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing" (I Corinthians 13:3). If I sell everything I have and give it all to the poor, yet I do so with resentment and not out of love - maybe my motive is to been seen by man or to be recognized as a philanthropist. And that doesn't profit me a thing. But if I give out of love, it profits me more than I can possibly imagine.

Giving to Others

The gift of giving is probably exercised more in what we give to others than in what we give to God. And the interesting thing is that what we give to the less fortunate, God considers a gift to Him. "Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me," said Jesus (Matthew 25:40). Proverbs 19:17 says, "He who has pity on the poor lends to the Lord." If you give even as little as a cup of cold water to a needy little one, Jesus says that you will by no means lose your reward (see Matthew 10:41,42).

We are commanded to give to the poor. In Deuteronomy 15:7,8 God said, "If there is among you a poor man of your brethren, within any of the gates in your land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart nor shut your hand from your poor brother, but you shall open your hand wide to him and willingly lend him sufficient for his need, whatever he needs."

God has blessed us so much and we thank Him for that. But we must be careful not to close our hearts to those who are in need. We must pray that God would give us a generous heart, that we would receive the gift of giving. Our generosity must go far beyond material things to include time and energy and even ourselves. We are called to do whatever we can to strengthen the weak and minister to those with great needs. In that way we bring glory to God, honoring and glorifying Him by being a conduit of heaven's resources to those who are in need.

God promises to bless you if you will do this. The whole text of Proverbs 19:17 says, "He who has pity on the poor lends to the Lord, and He will pay back what lie has given" (emphasis added). Would you like to lend some money to God? He pays great interest! God says, "You do that for Me, and I'll do something unbelievable for you. I'll pay you back." Why don't you try it? Lend to the Lord and see what He gives in return.

What Are We to Give?

1. Give yourself.

When Paul wrote to the Corinthians about how liberal the Macedonians were in their offerings for the poor in Jerusalem, he said they "first gave themselves to the Lord, and then to us by the will of God" (II Corinthians 8:5). That's really what God wants - He wants you to give yourself to Him. God wants you more than He wants your money or your possessions.

God isn't broke. He doesn't need our money. God said, "Every beast of the forest is Mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills,... If I were hungry, I would not tell you; for the world is Mine, and all its fullness" (Psalm 50:10,12). God says to us, "Look, what makes you think I'd ever need to come to you for handouts? I created everything that exists, and I own it all. If I wanted a steak, I have all the cattle I want. Why would I ask you for help?"

We need His help and support, He doesn't need ours. He wants you much more than He wants your money or possessions.

2. Give your talents and time.

When we talk of giving, too often we think only in terms of money. Surely that's the least of what God wants from us. Unfortunately, so many times when we give our money to God, we believe we have fulfilled our obligation. "After all, I put that five bucks in the plate last Sunday. What more does God want?" What more does He want? He wants you, and He wants your time.

Have you ever thought about giving some of your time to God? Maybe God has given you a talent, a capacity, or an ability that He can use. In fact, I'm sure He has. Whatever talent or capacity you have can be used by God. So give God your time, your energy, and the use of the talents He has loaned to you.

3. Give your thanks and praise.

The book of Hebrews speaks about giving to God a "sacrifice of praise, even the fruit of our lips" (see Hebrews 13:15). Give God the praise and thanksgiving and worship due His name.

Three times in the Bible we are told to "give to God the glory due His name." Six times the Scripture tells us to "give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endureth forever." Now, I believe the Word of God even if it tells us something only once. If it tells us the same thing twice, then we need to pay special attention. But if God tells us something nine times, we need to pay extra special, heavy-duty attention.

Have you given thanks to God today? Have you given glory to Him this week? Oh, that there would go out from our lips continual thanksgiving to God for His goodness.

The name of God is Yahweh, and we are told that the name of Yahweh is a strong tower which the righteous run into and are safe (Proverbs 18:10). So let's give to the Lord the glory due His name. His name means "the becoming one," and God is an expert at becoming for you whatever your need might be. No wonder we are told to give to the Lord the glory due His name!

The Gift that Grows

As believers, we have one inlet of power, namely the Holy Spirit. Yet this power has several outlets, and one of them is giving. The gift of giving develops and grows. The more you give, the more God gives you to give. You find yourself becoming a channel through which He can funnel His resources. When He finds that the channel is open, He begins to pour out to you so that it might flow from you to others. As the prophet said to King Asa, "The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him" (II Chronicles 16:9).

Do you know that God is looking for people to do what He wants done, that He might make them channels through which He can pour His spirit, His power, His love, and His resources? True wealth is measured not by what we keep, but by what we give away. Jesus said "It is more blessed to give than to receive" (Acts 20:35).

If God has given you the gift of giving, exercise it with simplicity. Be that instrument and channel through which God can flow His resources to meet the needs of others. You'll be blessed more than you can ever imagine. It really is more blessed to give than to receive.