I woke the other morning with this song on my mind and the song says “…give and it will come back to you, pushed down, shaken together and running over, why don’t you just give, and it will come back to you”. The thing about the song that I remember the most though is that it’s used mostly during offering time. I thought I was missing something in the application of this song. So, I looked up the lyrics and found that it really is an offering song. But what if we took the song and applied it to our lives – the true meaning of tithing.
I’ve always been taught that tithing is your finances, time, and talent. So, what if we took the lyrics and applied them to not only our finances but our time and talent also. We hear a lot about giving finances. Let’s talk about time and talent.
Can you imagine giving 10% of your time to the Kingdom and God giving you time back. I mean how many people have ever said, Lord, I need another hour in the day? What if your tithe could give you the time that you needed? Ya’ll may think I’m crazy with this notion. And maybe I am. But, what if I’m not? How crazy would it be that you could have this and more, if you just gave 10% of your time.
We all have natural abilities. How are they used to upbuild the church? I know someone who is not saved that can organize with the best of them. I mean, this is a gifting. Can you imagine how she could be used in church? How many churches have events where they give to the community – like school supplies? Can you imagine a naturally talented organizer coming in and arranging the supplies? That would be AWESOME!! The organizer organizing, the greeter greeting, and the smiler smiling. These are all talents that could benefit the kingdom.
As I was writing this, Jesus actually showed me a drawing that I have on my wall in my home office. In the drawing, Jesus is kneeling in front of a little girl who has a small teddy bear in front of her. Jesus has His hand out waiting on the little girl to give up the teddy bear. She says, “But I love it God”. This drawing is awesome because what the little girl doesn’t know is that Jesus has that huge teddy bear behind His back in exchange for her small teddy bear. If I use this song and apply it to that drawing, then I understand that giving and it will come back to me also applies to me giving my issues up, giving up the things that I love so much but God has so much more in store for me. With His hand outstretched, Jesus is telling the little girl to trust Him. Is this the part of our giving that we are missing? Trust in the giving that it will come back to me – good measure, pressed down shaken together and running over?
That word – trust -- keeps popping up. I’m hearing it more and more. Maybe we are making this harder than it should be. Trust is a reliance on the integrity, strength, ability, surety, of a person or thing; confident expectation of something; hope; to have confidence; hope. If I can trust in God, have confidence in what He spoke to me or about me then I can see that travel on this road called like much easier. The issue sometimes like with this little girl is that I don’t believe that what God has for me is better than what I have. What am I doing? Settling. Settling for the little when what God has for me is a lot.
“…give and it will come back to you, pushed down, shaken together and running over, why don’t you just give and it will come back to you”.
Be A Blessing and Not Just Blessed
- Nakya