What Must I Give?

  ⁶ With what shall I come before the LORD
       and bow down before the exalted God?
       Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
       with calves a year old?
 ⁷ Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams,
       with ten thousand rivers of oil?
       Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression,
       the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? –Michah 6:6-7

Such a probing question from Micah!  What kind of offering will it take to please God?  Will the minimum do?  Or should we give everything we have, as Jesus asked of the rich young ruler?  Will he be pleased with that?  Micah goes to the very extreme asking, “Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression?”  Is there anything at all we can give that can be worthy of God’s appreciation?
So many people… and sadly, so many church leaders, miss the whole point of giving.  Churches are criticized constantly for focusing on money.  We apologize to visitors when the sermon emphasis is on stewardship.  There are those people who don’t go to church – not because they don’t believe in God – but because they don’t want to be forced to give.  We think of those televangelists whose words slide from “give us your broken and weary and those who need healing” to “give us your 10’s and 20’s and even your precious 50’s.”

How much will please God?  If we tithe to the penny, will that please God?  Maybe 15%?  What about those we’ve heard about who actually “reverse tithe?”  They live on 10% of their income and give away the rest.  Surely God is well pleased with them!

Do we really think that God is more pleased with the reverse thither than he is with the person who lets the offering plate pass him by?  Maybe the church leadership is more pleased with him, but God is not counting our pennies. When will we learn that it is not about how much we give or what we do or don’t do?  It is about WHY we give what we give and WHY we do what we do.  It is about knowing down to our toes that if it was necessary to give all that we have and Jesus asked us to do it, we would do it with joy and complete trust in him.  It is knowing that our place of worship needs money to function and we are so happy to have a place to worship so we want to support it however we are able.

Not that stewardship programs are bad.  We need encouragement to step out in trust and faith.  That is what Christian community is for.  But the results should leave us feeling neither guilty nor self-righteous. 

The next verse from Micah is more familiar to us:

⁸ He has showed you, O man, what is good.
       And what does the LORD require of you?
       To act justly and to love mercy
       and to walk humbly with your God.

God doesn’t need our money or our things OR our firstborn.  He can create these things from pure nothingness.  What he wants and what he will not force from us is our hearts.  Once we love him and trust him and are able to naturally “act justly, love mercy and walk humbly” all the rest will just happen.  We will give anything that we find there is a need for simply because we want to share God’s love with as many people as possible.

Father,
Be with those who try to win your love by giving.  A generous spirit is wonderful if it is done in love and not guilt. Touch every heart with the knowledge that you love us and you delight over us and the only thing you want from us is to be loved back.  Amen.

Joys:  Fun at the wine festival Saturday; Daniel’s 24^th birthday yesterday; spending time outdoors