Giving Without Regrets
Every Missions Sunday annually, we pledge to ‘GIVE WITHOUT REGRETS by investing in His kingdom’. Why do we give? How can we give generously? Can online giving be an option in this day and age? Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 9 talks about giving that honors God and His kingdom. Well known author and speaker, Nicky Gumbel shares from this passage ten reasons to give generously:
- Giving is the best investment you can make: ‘A stingy planter gets a stingy crop; a lavish planter gets a lavish crop’ (v.6)
- Giving should be fun: ‘for God loves (He takes pleasure in, prizes above all other things, and is unwilling to abandon or to do without) a cheerful (joyous, “prompt to do it”) giver [whose heart is in his giving]’ (v.7, AMP).
- Giving takes away the burden of financial worry: ‘and God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work’ (v.8).
- Giving ‘enriches’ you: ‘Thus you will be enriched in all things and in every way so that you can be generous’ (v.11, AMP).
- Giving transforms your character: ‘Experiencing ‘the harvest of your righteousness’ (v.10b).
- Giving inspires others: ‘Your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God’s people but it is also overflowing in the many expressions of thanks to God. Because of the service of which you approved yourselves, people will praise God’ (v.11b–13a).
- Giving meets people’s needs: ‘helping meet the bare needs of poor Christians’ (v.12)
- Giving is evidence of real faith: Generous giving is an act of obedience, which should accompany ‘your confession of the gospel of Christ’ (v.13).
- Giving makes you a stakeholder in the church: ‘your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else’ (v.13b).
- Giving is a response to God’s gift to you: ‘God so loved you that he gave his one and only Son so that you might have eternal life (John 3:16). ‘Thank God for this gift, his gift. No language can praise it enough!’ (v.15, MSG).
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