Learning the Spiritual Discipline of Giving

Throughout this series, we’ve been focusing on individual spiritual disciplines while also addressing more general topics like, “The Power of Spiritual Disciplines in Walking with God” and  “A Secret to Doing Spiritual Disciplines.” This week, I want to look at the spiritual discipline of giving.  

“Giving” could, of course, include giving our time, our talents, and our tithe to the Lord’s work. We do need to use the time the Lord has given us wisely, always being sure to capitalize on opportunities God gives us (Eph 5:16). It’s also right for us to use our abilities and talents to serve the Lord through our local body of Christ (1 Cor 12:12-31 ). For this article, however, I’m focusing on the discipline of financial giving to support God's work. I want to do two things in this post: challenge regular givers to increase your giving and encourage non-givers/new givers to make this spiritual discipline part of your life.  

Perhaps a little personal background would be helpful. When I became a believer at the age of 13, giving to God’s work was easy; after all, I didn’t earn much money from the few side jobs I had as a young teenager. I realize there is much debate about whether the New Testament requires a tithe, but my home church strongly emphasized 10% as the starting point for our giving. Ten percent of what I was making—about $30 per week, as I recall—didn’t require much sacrifice.  

That challenge became greater as I, and then my wife and I when we got married, earned higher incomes. It seemed almost contradictory to me, but the more money we earned, the harder it was to give sacrificially to the Lord’s work. The more money we had, the more tempted we were to hang on to it—at least early in our marriage.  

In fact, I often worried about our funds. That worry came from growing up in a home where my parents simply spent more than we had – and the resulting tensions and arguments were ongoing and frightening at times. As soon as I started getting a paycheck, I carefully counted every penny, tried my best to save what I could, and committed, even as a teenager, to never letting happen to me what happened to my parents and our family. I was careful, and frankly, I was cheap. Honestly, I was idolatrous of the security that comes with money in the bank.  

It was my wife who challenged me not only to continue to be wise and frugal, but also to be giving and generous to others. We developed a giving plan—a discipline—that we follow to this day: give until we feel it, and then increase our giving any time we worry about finances.  

“Give until we feel it” means we don’t want to give only out of our excess; we want to give until it actually costs us. We want our giving to the Lord to be genuinely sacrificial.  

If either of us still gets concerned about our finances, then here’s what we do next: we give more to God’s work. Rather than fret, we sacrifice more and trust God to take care of us with the remaining funds He provided for us in the first place. We’re now older, and we can say with the psalmist, “I have been young and now I am old, yet I have not seen the righteous abandoned or his children begging for bread” (Ps 37:25).  

So, if you’re a regular giver to God’s work, I challenge you to grow in this discipline by increasing your giving. Here’s why:  

1. The Bible expects us to give cheerfully (2 Cor 9:7). In my experience, we give most cheerfully when we give most sacrificially. Giving to the work of God brings a joy you can’t experience otherwise.  

2. Many of us get stagnant in our giving. We too often give the same amount we’ve given for years, without matching any increases in income we’ve earned. We don’t think enough about our giving plans. 

3. Many of us give only out of our excess. We give, but we seldom miss what we’ve given. That happens when we give only out of our extra dollars.   

4. Giving until it costs us is a faith statement. When we feel the pinch of our giving—that is, when the sacrifice is genuine—we must trust God in new ways. 

5. Our increased giving tells us something about our hearts. Pam and I have come to realize that increasing our giving not only provides more for God’s work, but it also helps to weaken the hold that “stuff” has on our lives. 

If you are just getting started with this discipline of giving financially to the Lord’s work, here are my simple suggestions for you: 

1. Prayerfully look at how you spend money in general. If giving to the Lord’s work demands that you think more about how you spend, you will become a better steward of what God has entrusted to you. 

2. Determine what percentage of your income you are currently giving to God’s work – and make a plan to give consistently and more sacrificially. You may need to grow your giving incrementally as you work on your spending (see the last point), but you won’t grow in your giving without an intentional strategy. You need a plan.  

3. Give because you love the Lord. Love has a way of motivating us to give sacrificially and enjoy every minute of it. Tell the Lord you love Him through your budget and your spending.  

4. Express gratitude for the opportunity to give. Every time you give, thank the Lord for this spiritual discipline. It really does bring joy. 

5. Just give . . . with great zeal. That is, start somewhere. You won’t regret it.