The Giving Cycle

Today as I was reading my Bible I fell into the passage below. It has been used in a thousand different ways to promote all sorts of agendas. I wondered though at its most basic level how this applies to me. I have been tithing to my church since I was 18 (whichever church I was attending at the time) and so that is not a real issue for me. Cheerful giving though is questionable in all sorts of situations. Time probably is my most grudging charity and I have found myself grumbling for hours about lost moments. Yet I can squander thirty minutes on the sports page. The days are numbered and so are the bills in our wallet but only for a while…Soon enough we will enter the limitless realm where we will be held back only by the generosity we have pushed away now. It is time to give…


Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 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. As it is written:

"He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor;
his righteousness endures forever."

Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.
2 Corinthians 9:6-11 NIV