There are people who reason, If I give generously, I’ll have to worry about where the money will come from to replace what I’ve given. But Jesus teaches that generous giving isn’t a cause for insecurity and worry. It’s a cure for it.
Do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? (Matthew 6:25-26)
Immediately after He commands us not to store up treasures on Earth but to store them in Heaven (Matthew 6:19-21), Jesus says we are to adopt the right perspective (verses 22-23) and serve the right master—God, not money (verse 24).
Our Lord follows this statement by saying three times, “Do not worry” (Matthew 6:25, 31, 34, NIV). Those who invest in the right treasury, adopt the right perspective, and serve the right master have nothing to worry about. In contrast, those who invest in the wrong treasury (Earth, not Heaven), adopt the wrong perspective (the temporal, not the eternal), and serve the wrong master (money, not God) have every reason to worry.
After Jesus tells us not to worry about life’s necessities—specifically food, drink, and clothes—He says, “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33). According to our Lord, giving isn’t the problem that will leave us short of material provision. In fact, it’s part of the solution to our material needs, since God promises to provide for givers, just as he did in Old Testament times (Malachi 3:8-11). Jesus promises the same (Luke 6:38). When we give away our treasures, we are seeking God’s Kingdom first. This is the very thing Jesus says fulfills the condition for His promise to provide the material goods we need.
Gerard and Geraldine Low of Singapore believe that God wants us to test His promises to provide, and trust Him to show his greatness and sufficiency. Every year the Lows pray and decide how much they are going to give. But almost without fail, crises arise, bringing financial instability to the point that they have wondered if they could—or should—give at the level they’ve determined.
Still, they’ve stuck to their commitment, even when it has meant dipping into their savings. “We’re accountants by training,” Gerard says, “so we started a spreadsheet of what we’ve promised to give to God. Each time we almost run out of money to give to God, God restores our lost income and provides the means for us to continue giving.” They are taking God at His word when He invites us to test him in this area. “If you don’t let go, you’re not giving Him a test,” Geraldine says.
Like the Lows and countless others, my wife, Nanci, and I have been amazed and thankful to see God come through again and again. The more you experience this, the greater your joy and delight and trust in God. For over thirty years, Nanci and I have had the privilege of giving away all our book royalties to God’s Kingdom work. On occasion, people ask if I realize what we could have done with all the money from the sale of more than eleven million books. The answer is easy: “Nothing that would bring us nearly as much joy!”
I’m certainly not saying that God must always give back to us exactly what we give up, or ten or a hundred times more, in some kind of karma-like transaction or misapplication of Mark 10:30. Sometimes He gives us joy or patience or endurance as we make real sacrifices for Him—and such intangible gifts are absolutely priceless.
But when more material provision does come back, whatever you do, don’t hold it tightly. God has told us precisely why He provides for us so abundantly: “You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous in every way” (2 Corinthians 9:11, CEB). The verse continues, “Such generosity produces thanksgiving to God.”
Keep joyfully giving back to God by meeting the physical and spiritual needs of others. Don’t wait for your treasures to follow your heart; instead, give your treasures freely, then watch your heart follow them to what will matter when this life is done.
This is the good life, the adventure of trusting God and seeing Him work in us and through us and around us. This is the abundant life of excitement and happiness, to be followed by the unending pleasures of eternal life with God and His people in a renewed and vastly improved universe.
