9. Giving to God
It
was once said that the wallet is the "last frontier"-- that it’s
the last thing that comes to God in surrender. But it should be
the first, along with our surrendered heart. Jesus spoke much
about money. He said that we cannot serve God and mammon (see
Matthew 6:24). The word "mammon" was the common Aramaic word for
riches and it signifies "that which is to be trusted." In other
words, either money is our source of joy, our sense of security,
the supplier of our needs -- or God is.
When you give, make sure you do so with a cheerful heart. Our
giving should be a systematic and purposeful giving to the
church where we fellowship (see 2 Corinthians 9:7). It should be
in response to need (see Acts 11: 27-29). It should be
sacrificial (see Galatians 2:10), and should be done in secret
with a humble heart (see Matthew 6:1-4). It is a key to
spiritual fruit (see Luke 16:10-11).
The
next section is:
Troubleshooting Cults, Atheists, Skeptics
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