I've been thinking about giving over the last couple of days and wondering if it is a word that helps or hinders us in our approach to possessions, money and loving others. We talk about joyful giving, grudging giving, being made to give, having to giving, regular giving and so on. It is used both negatively and postively. Yet it is the language we use in church to talk about our giving back to God some of what he has given us as a token of our love, and we give lip service to using the rest of what we have been given by God for his glory.
But I wonder if we would be better changing the word we use to blessing. After all blessing seems a more biblical word to describe the lavish provision God gives his people and the world. God is a God who blesses. So should should we talk about blessing others? Just thinking about the ideas behind it and blessing automatically (for me anyway) conjures up images of lavishness and generosity. There is nothing stingy or left overs-ish about blessing. Just imagine if we thought of blessing our church with our direct debit or giving, what would that change about how you gave and what you gave. As churches how would it change our approach and the amount we gave to support others ministries if we looked to bless them rather than give to them? What about in our provision for the poor and marginalised if we looked to bless them rather than give?
Blessing rules out tokenism, it rules out a grudging miserliness, it automatically calls us to be lavish.
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