Comment on "Sacrificial Giving"

The following is a comment to the Sacrificial Giving post:

Anonymous Said...

"Please tell me you people aren't serious about there being a right and wrong here. God loves a cheerful giver, true, but I think if the method of delivery was an issue to Him, He would have laid that out for us. Honestly, if someones going to hand you some money....would you really care how much needless work they put themselves through to get it to you. That's not sacrifice, that's purposefully doing something just to make it more difficult. Yikes!"

My Response:

Whether it would be wrong to actually give through electronic bank transfer is not my place to say, but I do think it makes a difference to God, and here is why. God doesn't need my money or your money to further His work. After all, the Bible says God owns the cattle on 1,000 hills, right? When Jesus was on this earth and needed money to pay His taxes, he didn't take up an offering or ask His disciples to tithe, He simply told Peter to go catch a fish and to look in the fishes mouth for the money. Miraculously Peter found the money just as the Lord said He would. So if God doesn't need our money, why ask us to give? Why doesn't God simply provide for the needs of the church miraculously? May I suggest it's because He uses giving to keep our hearts humble and open to Him? If God has control of your wallet, most likely you've surrendered every other area of your life also. Money is one of the hardest things for us to give up, but God wants to know that we are willing to sacrifice even our hard earned cash out of love for Him. So if God wants us to give for OUR benefit, in order to grow us spiritually, doesn't it make sense that this would only benefit us if we do it cognitively? For instance, my retirement plan is automatic. I don't have to think about it or do anything, and money gets transferred every month. This takes absolutely no thought, discipline, or sacrifice on my part because I don't have to make the decision to give that money every month, it just happens. I'm not saying that tithing in this manner would be sinful (the truth is I would really like to do it), but I do think we would be missing out on some opportunities for spiritual growth.