A few weeks ago, Rose shared at church what she’s been thinking about generosity. She’s written up her thoughts in this blog.

Lately I’ve been challenged to think about how I spend my money, and how I give. I’ve concluded that these things say a lot more about my Christian character than I initially think. It’s easy to think of my spending and my giving as this ‘unseen’ thing. My bank accounts are hidden, password protected and vaulted… even my banking app is in ‘dark mode’ by default. 

As a Christian, I can easily pray to grow in my character and think that this vaulted thing in my phone, a list of abstract digits, is of lesser importance and doesn’t speak directly to my Christian character. Have you ever thought about your money and your giving like that?

Numbers expose my heart.

The Bible says that far from being hidden and unimportant, my spending exposes what is really going on in my heart (Matthew 6:21). I can talk all day about what I care about, but if you read my bank transactions, you’ll see the truth about what I really desire – in stark numbers that I can’t contest.

Our generosity also shows the genuineness of my love for Christ. That sounds like an outrageous thing to say. But this is how Paul encourages generosity amongst the Macedonian church, to “prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine” (2 Corinthians 8). So how I spend my money, and I give financially, speaks so much about who I am before Christ!

Giving tells your testimony.

We can look to the parable of the poor widow (Mark 12:41-44) and know that generosity should cost us something as Christians. 

I don’t want my giving to be like that of a philanthropic nonbeliever; giving that might be very large but is comfortable. There’s no personal expense to the giver, they still get to live a life where their generosity doesn’t affect what they spend on themselves. This was the giving of the rich people in the parable; it doesn’t tell a story of a person who knows Christ.

But I want my giving reflect this – that I am a born-again, New Testament Christian who has known Jesus and His salvation. I want my giving to speak of how I view Jesus as the satisfier of my soul. I want my speech and my numbers to agree. I want that list of numbers to spell out, ‘I have received full riches in Christ’.

So how can we do that? How can our giving be costly but not irresponsible?

Practically, that will mean that there could be things that we may want to do but don’t, because of our giving. There will be things we are much slower to save up for than our friends, because of our giving. Or desirable things that our friends buy that we consider ‘a dream for another life’.

Purchases that exist forever.

Yet, that’s the place we should long to be in our giving – giving that forces us to look to eternity. To remind ourselves that that’s where our money is better placed: first to our local church, then to gospel ministries and things that do God’s will on earth. 

We talk about spending money on ‘things that last into eternity’. Do you ever think that one day, you’ll be in Heaven and looking around you at the things that you spend your money on? That your very physical money can currency-exchange to things that will exist in Heaven and that those purchases will exist forever. Have you ever thought about your financial giving with eternity in mind?

May the way we spend our money get us excited for that day.

If you want to think more about this, I’d recommend praying through 2 Corinthians 8 where Paul praises the Macedonian church’s response in generosity. Read it, be inspired and listen closely to the ways the Lord is leading you to follow their example.

“In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity.”