Pastor Ritter ~ August
The Creators Financial Plan
Part Three: We Give Thee But Thine Own
Have you ever noticed when the offering in church is brought forward to the pastor standing in front of the altar, how he then takes the offering from the usher, turns and lifts the offering into the air before returning it back to the usher. What is going on there? The pastor is saying a prayer to God over that offering that was collected. For me, I recite a prayer that is used within a hymn. “Lord we give thee but thine own in every gift we bring, for all we have is thine alone a trust from you our King.”
The hymn titled We Give Thee But Thine Own was written by William Walsham How and is based upon a prayer of David recorded in book of 1 Chronicles 29:14 “But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able thus to offer willingly? For all things come from you, and of your own have we given you.” So in the hymn you see the relationship between both giving and stewardship (managing). The prayer of David reminds us, as does the hymn, that God is the owner, we are merely the manager of God’s blessings to us which are given to provide for our own needs, the needs of the family as well as the care of God’s kingdom including the advancement of the Gospel.
Last month we touched on the topic of how stewardship is more related to the care and management of what God provided, created and entrusted to us. While proper stewardship will result in the ability to be generous in our giving, stewardship is not really about giving. As we look to God’s Word and to the Word that became flesh, Jesus, for how we should live out our days on this earth we see that God is generous in all things. Likewise, as God is generous we too ought to be generous.
We can be generous in many ways other than financial ones. We can be generous in complementing those around us, to lift up and encourage them just as we have been encouraged in Christ Jesus. Did you hear what I said, we have received encouragement from Christ and with what we have received we are to encourage others…it came from God. God in Christ Jesus has atoned for all of our sins. Think of the immense amount of time spent in the Old Testament observing all the different feasts and festivals, not to mention looking for and preparing from among your flocks the finest of animals that would be an acceptable sacrifice and offering. We have been freed by Christ’s sacrifice so that we can spend that time in worship to God and service to others. God gives us the time to be generous, if we are good stewards of our time.
Likewise, God provides us with more than enough to be generous financial givers, if we are good stewards of what we have received. It feels good to have been a good steward of God’s blessings that we can return thanks to God by returning a small portion of what we have provided for the benefit of the work in His Kingdom. I look forward to exploring the joy of giving next month in my article as we discover that giving is not what God wants from you, rather it is what God wants for you.