The Priority of Giving

Honour the LORD with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty.Proverbs 3:9–10“Honour” means “give weight to.” Give weight to the Lord with your wealth. You do this by laying aside a portion of all that God has given you and giving it back to Him.What should you put aside?“The firstfruits of all your produce.” Firstfruits are the first part of whatever comes to you. God is honoured when what we set aside for Him is our first commitment, not what’s left when our other costs are met. What we give comes first. It is to be taken off the top.Perhaps this is what you have been doing, and you can testify to the blessing of it. You wonder, “How are we going to manage?” And by God’s grace and with wise planning, you do.How much should you give?In the Old Testament God’s people gave a tithe, 10 percent of all that God had given to them. But there is no place in the New Testament where God tells us how much we should give.Charles Bridges says, “The law dealt with us as children and prescribed the exact amount. The gospel treats us as men, and leaves it to circumstance, principle, and conscience.”“Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Cor. 9:7).God does not command you with regard to how much you should pray. It should arise out of a desire for communion with God. A law about how much you should pray would kill that.The same is true for giving. God wants our giving to come out of love for Him. The choices you make will reflect your heart. And as you grow in Christ, your desire for giving will increase.Are you giving “weight” to God, honouring Him with your giving?