Issues for Today: The Truth About Giving

Recently, I read the story of Ed Dobson who served for many years as the pastor of a large Evangelical Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Some time ago, Ed was diagnosed with ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease. During a church service after his diagnosis, Dobson spoke to the people on giving. “The offering plates had just been passed, and Dobson asked for one. He said we shouldn't just put a few of our possessions in the plate, but rather ourselves. Dobson delivered the rest of his sermon while standing in an offering plate” (Taken from Christianity Today). The point he was trying to make, of course, was that our whole lives are meant to become an offering to the Lord. As Romans 12:1 says in The Message translation, “So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life – your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking around life – and place it before God as an offering.”

The truth about our offerings is that the money we place in the offering basket or plate is really an extension of ourselves. It is bringing what we have worked for and laying it before the Lord as a sign of our unconditional and full surrender to His purposes and will. Like Ed Dobson, we are in effect, putting ourselves into the basket so that we might become a living sacrifice. It follows, therefore, that a withholding of our offerings is really a withholding of ourselves from the Lord. And, as the prophet Malachi points out, God does not want to be robbed of His rightful place in our lives – a place of high honour and trust where we always know Him as the Lord Almighty (see Mal. 3:8-12).