In this article we are going to talk about the Word for the Offering, that is, those that are made to thank God at all times for the blessings that he has granted us, and for which we have had well-being, grace, health and strength. at all times, in this article we present it to you.
Word for the Offering
In the Bible we can find that God always asks us for an offering and also tells us how he wants it to be done in 2 Corinthians 9: 7-8, where he tells us that each one must give as the heart disposes, without sadness , without having need, since he is a God who gives joy, his power is great so that everything abounds in us through grace, so that we have enough of all things and abound in good things.
From there we can deduce that God is the owner of all things, all things come from him and that we and everything we can have belong to God. Each one of us is an administrator of God who is managing his goods and properties, that is why we are responsible for his things and we must strive to be the best administrators of him and therefore we must give him a word of offering.
What does the Old Testament say about the Offering?
In the Old Testament in Exodus, it is written that God took the people of Israel out of slavery in Egypt and took them to Canaan, this land was very fertile and rich, everything that was sown was harvested, so God asked them to they had to give him a tenth of the crops, this part began to be called the tithe. With this, God wanted his people to remember that all the goods on earth belonged to him and with this he taught them that they should give him the place of honor in their lives.
That is why God is considered to be generous since he let them keep the other part of the crops, but the first part harvested was only for him. (Leviticus 27:30). Apart from the tithe, people also had to make voluntary offerings, which were given to the priest along with the tithe, when they went to worship God, since none of them should arrive empty-handed, but according to their condition and blessing. present what they have obtained (Deuteronomy 16: 16-17).
But there came a time when God saw that men deceived him with the tithe and offerings, so the punishment and the harvests began to diminish, the people repented of the sins they were committing and for having disobeyed God and they began to give in the right way as he had taught them, and began to fill them again with blessings and abundance of food (Malachi 3:8-10).
In Deuteronomy 14:22-28 it also says that the tithe should be an offering that serves as a basis of life for those who are believers. In addition, the Bible also says elsewhere that those who are righteous have compassion, give and lend and that is why they will be possessors of the land, while those who are dirty and borrow and do not return what they borrow, these will be uprooted from the land. (Psalm 37).
Those people who know how to give are not those who waste but those who know how to share, they are those who are satisfied with what they have and will never lack for anything, instead those who refuse to give will never have abundance and will not be happy.
And what does the New Testament say?
Jesus Christ also gave his teaching on how to make offerings to God, and he said in this regard that in the same way that you give to God, he will give to you, since when he decides to give to people he does so abundantly, since it is a generous God. In the time of Jesus the grains were bought by people in bulk, but many sellers did it by measure and did not let the buyers shake it to settle, but with God it was something else, its measure had to be good, tight, shaken and that would overflow
It establishes that a good offering makes it easier for God to give us, to the extent that we can give him more, he will give us more, if we give little, he will give us little. Since Jesus said that with the same rod that is measured so will be measured (Luke 6:38).
In this way in both testaments we are told that God will give us what we give him, God is not poor, nor stingy, he likes to give many goods and blessings to his children but we must comply with what he established in the Bible . Furthermore, God wants you to make an offering not because he needs it, but because he wants his children to be able to become like him, generous, so that they can win the treasures of heaven.
Principles for the Offering
God also establishes a series of principles that are necessary to make a good offering:
- You must give yourself: that is the first offering you must make to God.
- Give in the same way as God prospered in you: God asked his people in the Old Testament to give him a tithe of what they harvested and earned, in the New Testament he did not establish this rule but another: that each one put a part of something according to how he would have prospered or won.
- Giving in a systematic way: the offering is an act of worship and it is not something that is done in an unexpected way, when doing it in a systematic way it is that it is done on the first day of the week when you go to church. In addition, everyone must offer whether they are young, old, poor or rich, everyone must give their tithe and their offering.
- Give with joy and freedom: bye-bye he likes to give with joy, that's why he wants you to do it voluntarily and with your heart, you should never do it with sadness, or out of necessity.
- Give wisely: we must be good administrators, do it like the wise, it is not the same to say that you give liberally than to have wisdom to give. You cannot give your offering to churches that do not comply with the precepts and commandments of the Lord, you must give where you can be sure that you will have a spiritual gain.
God measures the Offerings
You should not have large amounts of money when you go to give your offering since God does not see this, he measures through the amount or size that you can give as an offering, that is, he measures in relation to what you have to give, since he sees the sacrifice you make when you are going to do it, that's why our offering can be equal to or greater than what a rich person can give.
In the Bible it is mentioned that on one occasion Jesus was in the temple, sitting watching the people give their offerings, the rich gave a lot and a poor and widowed woman arrived who only placed two copper coins, which did not have much value, but he said that in the eyes of God, that woman had already given much more than all the people who had made their offering that day, because she gave all she had of sustenance.
To whom are the offerings given?
In the bible it says that the offerings should be given to the local church, if it really complies with the teachings that are in the Bible and where the figure of Christ is relevant. Also that it should be offered to people who in some way helped us in spirit. Those are the words of God that we should share our money with those who taught us the word of God and helped us spiritually.
We must give to those people who are in need, especially if they are believers, in 1 John 3:17 it says that he who has goods in this world and sees a brother in need and closes himself before him with his heart, how can he live the love of God in him. This offering to the needy should be done through local churches, in a simple way and without attracting the attention of other people.
The offering should also be taken to those who are evangelizing the unconverted, since it is the function of every Christian to do so, this is a commandment of God when he sends the disciples throughout the world to evangelize every creature, in the same way we must help these missionaries to support themselves while they are helping other people to accept Christ.
The Offering is a sowing
It is a sowing because it cannot be thrown into the street, when you sow a seed, you do not throw it into the air, but you place it on land prepared for that purpose, the amount of harvest you have will depend on everything you have sown. Saint Paul in his letter to the Corinthians told them that whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who does so generously will reap generously.
For God will always provide money for all his churches so that they are maintained and that his servants can continue preaching to the unconverted, for that God gives us money for the offering and that is why he helps us to be generous people. Jesus himself was also an example of how the offering should be made, the Bible says that the grace of Jesus Christ, who made himself poor for us out of love, being rich, so that through his poverty we might be enriched.
When Jesus taught his disciples by parables he told them one that contains spiritual truths. This is about a rich man, with many goods and great crops, so much that he had nowhere to store it, so he said he would knock down his barns to build bigger ones and keep everything he had, and then he would tell his soul that with those goods he had enough for many years, he would rest, drink and be merry.
But God scolded him and told him that he was a fool since that same night he was going to die and what he had saved who would have left. That is why Jesus said that the one who makes a treasure for himself is not rich before God, if you really want to be rich then you must be a good servant with the things that God has given you since:
- Life must be managed since it is not a property, everything we have belongs to God, we are not the owners of anything, but we are only managing the goods that he has entrusted to us in this life. If you are going to be responsible for simple things then you will never have big responsibilities.
- The day will come when we have to give an explanation of the goods that we have administered for God. The life we have, health, talents, abilities, money and everything that God has given us we must give an account to God in which it was used, and if we did it in the right way he himself will tell us that we did a good job and we were servants faithful and loyal.
- Other people must be won for Christ, this is a wise teaching and it is the best way to use money, money must be used to win friends for eternity, and that they can receive us in heaven.
- There will always be someone in heaven who receives with a welcome, this will be when our money is no longer useful, and where we stop being servants, that's why we must use our short stay on earth to win other people who are followers of Christ and may our friendships be eternal.
- That will be the moment when you ask yourself if you were really a good servant of everything that God entrusted to you in life and if you really used money to get eternal friendships, when that is the case there will be a person in heaven who will be there for you. tell you that without n it would have been for you, I would not be in that beautiful place, and I would not be receiving you with love and joy for eternity.
Verses of Blessing of the Offering
There will be many times in your life when the Bible verses will help you to get through some troublesome times in a good way as they will encourage you to move forward once you have accepted that Christ is your personal savior. , the word of God and the Bible will be the greatest need you have since it is not only to achieve eternal life but so that you can have a better relationship and communication with God.
The best way to do it is by establishing a relationship by reading the word and especially the verses that speak of the blessing and the offering, these are great treasures that we never thought we would have on earth. Many of them are words that God gave us, others are from the Son of God, that is why we have a great privilege and honor to have such a beautiful book so that we can read it and above all study it.
Blessing Verses to Give
There are many verses that you can find in the Bible that refer to the blessing of the offering, let's start with:
Hebrews 3: 1
This verse says that being all brothers they have been sanctified and are called to heaven, that is why they should consider Jesus, not only as an apostle but also as the high priest of the faith that is what we profess. It teaches us that we must give tithes as a mystery, praying to the people and presenting it together with the offering in order to worship God our Lord.
Since the money will never go to heaven but Jesus will be present when we confess and see what is the intention in our hearts with which we are giving the offering to God, since it is all that belongs to him. The tithe is not given with fear, nor for others to see that you are giving and less to make them upset, since this would only cause a curse within their seeds.
2 Corinthians 9: 2-7
They say in the Bible that he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly and he who sows generously will also reap generously. Each person must deliver his offering according to what he has in his heart, without sadness or necessity, since when God gives us his goods he gives them to us with joy.
The teaching of this verse is that God in ancient times saw how men harvested and kept all the crops in barns, the kings had great treasures and huge barns with which they could feed many people.
That is why we understand that the work of God is in the way in which you harvest generously if you have good seeds you will have good fruits and therefore there will be a great supply from God which must serve to feed all those who work for him.
Exodus 23: 15-16
They must keep a first festival called the unleavened one that should be done for seven days, eat unleavened bread to remember the exit from Egypt, but they could not arrive before him empty-handed. Here he also talks about what the harvest will be like, the feast of the first fruits of his work.
Three times a year men had to present themselves before God from everything they had sown in the field, and also from the third festival that speaks of how the fruits will be harvested, not to offer fermented bread, nor the blood of victims, nor they would save the fat for the next day, but they had to bring to Yahweh's house the first and best fruits of the land, without cooking the lamb in the mother's milk.
Blessing Verses
As true children of God we must learn that when we give something it is with joy, if God has given you a blessing of abundance, then you must give with abundance. If you have prayed for God to bless you with material or financial abundance then you should bless God in the same way.
There are Christians who believe that God is the only one qualified to bless, but this is not the case because if you are a good child of God you can also be a source of many blessings that you can give to other people around you. What you give to God he himself will give to you, since not only money can bless you our Lord.
If your family is large or numerous, but you have love, health and blessings, that is a reason for you to also give to God with an abundance of love, health and blessings, since he has taken care of you and your family, especially all those who surrounds you
Proverbs 17: 18
When a man is lacking in understanding, he lends his money and acts as surety for his friend. Being a guarantor or lender of money is something that is not pleasing in the eyes of God, since he does not like businesses that are full of falsehood and that only serve to deceive other people with promises that will never be fulfilled. When you tell a person that you can help them with something and you never give it to them, you are making a false statement.
Romans 8: 17
Children are also heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ if we can suffer at his side so that we both may be glorified. This verse teaches that in the life of Christians we are always taught that we should be humble and poor. But the Children of God were created to be heirs next to Jesus, therefore we must be faithful and represent the kingdom and its finances in an adequate way.
No person likes to follow a gospel that is poorly written, dressed, smells strange and wears the same clothes for many years when I become the Lord, because people also want to have prosperity, but sometimes they do not want to pay a fair price to get it.
Proverbs 22: 4
The wages of humility and fear of the Lord are in wealth, honor and life. When God blesses you with greatness you should not be afraid to show it to others. There are people who, out of fear, or because of what other people will say, stop doing many things that could give you a good benefit or gain, that is why you must have confidence in God since everything that he pleases to give you, has been with joy and therefore You should not hide the blessings that he has granted you and that perhaps at some moments you went through many difficulties to be able to obtain them or simply because you had nothing.
Perhaps at present you feel that you do not need absolutely anything, and this is a good reason to show it as a glory and honor of God, without forgetting where you came from when you had nothing. When you can share these messages that are in the Bible that have to do with finances, you can make an exhibition of judgments or criticism of other people, but if you do it with your heart, the only thing you can achieve is that you inspire other people who have not yet known this grace that is within the Bible.
Proverbial 11: 25-26
A generous soul will always have prosperity and whoever satisfies it will also satisfy it, but the one who hides the grain will only receive curses from the people, but the one who sells it will only have blessings on his head. This verse teaches us that when we are going through bad times today, people tend to hoard things or food, for fear that they will be shaken or run out and that later they will not be able to get them. In the eyes of Two this is not good, since a food or thing that is bought and hoarded is bad, as is having it and not sharing it with other people.
That is why if you are waiting for an economic blessing from God to come to you, you should look into your heart and think if you really need it and if with it you are rendering a service to God if it is placed in your hands. There have been cases of people who ask God for a blessing of money and once they get more money they never return to church.
But for these people who think this way and act like this, they should know that this economic blessing will be momentary, and they will lose it quickly. A faithful servant of Dos knows how to care for and protect what God gives him, and therefore he will be worthy of many blessings in their lives, since they will never stop having God present with them.
If human beings end up leaving God because of money, what they are doing is idolizing it, and the Bible says that the root of all evil is the love of money, because in truth it is not money itself. if the problem but the way people love him. Well says 1 Timothy 6:10, the root of evil is the love of money which is coveted by many people who ended up losing faith and were filled with many pains.
Genesis 4:4
Abel also brought as an offering to God the firstborn of all his sheep and took fat souls from them and Jehovah was pleased with Abel and his offering. This tells us that to be prosperous we must be humble, obedient, have faith and keep our hearts in the right place so that we can give God everything that belongs to him without expecting anything in return for it, when we sow, harvest and we can manage God's blessings in a better way in our lives.
We already know that God loved us so much and still loves us that if he knows that he must give us something that we have asked him with fervor, this can lead us astray, but he prefers that you go and therefore he does not give you absolutely anything until he believes that you are really ready to receive him. That is why he teaches us to dominate the riches and not that they end up dominating us, since he prefers to see with what heart you ask for things than the amount of what you are asking for.
Matthew 23: 23
In the Gospel of Matthew it tells us that Jesus told the scribes that there are of them that they were Pharisees and hypocrites, since they only decimated the dill, the mind and the paths and left aside the most important thing that is the law, justice. , mercy and above all the law of God, for him it was clear that you should not stop doing some things for others, because if you forget the tithe that is written in the Old Testament you are only looking for your blessings to receive arrive later than what you expect
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