An Act of Gratitude
Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.”
Genesis 8:20-21 (NIV)
Cain and Abel are the very first mention of giving in Scripture. Noah represents the second mention in Scripture when he builds an altar and offers burnt offerings to God out of gratitude.
All of God’s creation was flooded because God released rain from the heavens to wash away the sin from creation, and what is it that Noah does first when he emerges? The very first thing he does is build an altar, and then he offers to God burnt offerings, and the Bible says God was pleased with Noah’s offerings.
While this is the first we hear of the building of an altar, of course that altar is a symbol of where Noah rests his confidence. That altar is an acknowledgement that Noah is acutely aware of why he now stands on dry ground.
If Cain and Abel teach us that generous giving is an act of obedience, then Noah teaches us that generous giving is an act of gratitude. Noah realizes, “I’m on dry ground because God decided to let me enjoy life on the other side of flooding,” and the text teaches that this requires a response.
Noah is not worshiping and giving because he’s attempting to manipulate God to keep giving. He worships and he gives because he’s thankful.
What should our response be other than grateful and generous when we stand on dry ground? We respond to God’s giving with an altar, with an offering, with worship, and with thanksgiving because it’s part of how we live out our gratitude to the Lord.
It really ought to excite us to give to God as an expression of gratitude. Giving is not just connected to worship, it is worship.
Trusting God’s Abundance
Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
Luke 6:38 (NIV)
Jesus is teaching struggling, marginalized, disenfranchised people to live in spite of their cultural seasonal predicaments, to live generously with their lives, their resources, and their ministry to each other because to Christ, generosity is a core principle.
The Bible in general and Jesus specifically feel no need to hesitate in teaching, admonishing, and encouraging the soul that is saved to live generously, and giving is connected to spiritual maturation. God is a giver, and God expects us in turn to be givers. He sees it as a spiritual matter. He grows us closer to Him through it. He makes us accountable to each other through it. He connects it to our worship.
Give and it will be given to us. This is God’s promise. We are to live generously because when we do, there is spiritual reciprocity attached to it.
God’s measure starts with more than flow; it starts with overflow. He gives back to you what He presses down, shakes together, and causes to run over. He is the God of exceedingly and abundantly.
What does God use to measure how He interacts with us? He doesn’t use your arm because it’s too short. He uses His arm that stretches from eternity to eternity. When God measures out how He will reciprocate to your generosity, it is so much more than you expect that you come to understand what Malachi meant when he said it is synonymous with the windows of heaven being opened and blessings being poured out.
Here’s what God is saying. Good measure means God will measure it out. Live generously and trust that He will reciprocate with good measure.
I Don’t Want to Hurt Anymore
Paul gathered a pile of brushwood and, as he put it on the fire, a viper, driven out by the heat, fastened itself on his hand. When the islanders saw the snake hanging from his hand, they said to each other, “This man must be a murderer; for though he escaped from the sea, the goddess Justice has not allowed him to live.” But Paul shook the snake off into the fire and suffered no ill effects.
Acts 28:3-5 (NIV)
Pain is inevitable. But just because you’re hurt doesn’t mean you have to give the rest of your life to suffering.
You can’t prevent a viper from fastening itself to you, its fangs attaching to your life and pushing out venom. You can’t prevent these terrible life experiences. But you don’t have to live your life suffering from what you have gone through. You can shake it off.
Paul gets a revelation, a disclosure. God tells him that he’s going to stand and represent God’s kingdom in front of Caesar. God makes that promise. It’s Paul’s assignment.
So when he gets bitten by a poisonous viper, he shakes the viper off. The viper can’t take him out because he hasn’t testified in front of Caesar yet. Until or unless he stands in front of Caesar and tells him what the Lord told him to say, no bite or painful experience can do more than cause temporary discomfort.
So don’t talk about your pain. Talk about your purpose.
You might have pain, but you also have an assignment. If you live life destined and determined by the will of God, if you live your life under sovereign providence, then what happens to you has to submit to God’s will for you. What covers you after deep pain is purpose. When purpose is the filter that you use to make sense out of what is attempting to cause you harm, you can instead try to figure out how God is moving and why.
An Act of Acknowledgement
Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High, and he blessed Abram, saying, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth. And praise be to God Most High, who delivered your enemies into your hand.” Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything.
Genesis 14:18-20 (NIV)
Abram gave ten percent of everything he had of his possessions to make one declarative, bold statement: I’m only here because God made a way for me.
God provided strength and strategy. God provided people and power. God provided might and motivation. God’s provisions brought the victory.
Abram gives because, apparently, he believes that when God provides, there has to be an offering. He doesn’t see money or possessions as disconnected from how he acknowledges his testimony.
God gives, God empowers, God motivates, God inspires. God provides, you benefit, and you demonstrate that with an offering because money is one of the ways God has provided for you. So you then acknowledge God with your resources. We can’t live blessed by a gracious God and not acknowledge that it is way more than any of us deserves.
Money management is closely connected to carrying a spiritual conviction about where your life and resources really come from. Giving, money management, generosity in every way, shape, and form are all connected to carrying a clear spiritual discernment, conviction, and understanding that your life and all of its strengths are really nothing more than a testimony to the provision of a beneficent God.
We honor God by giving of what we have because we acknowledge that God provided everything in our lives.
An Expected Future
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (NIV)
The short-lived pains of this life are creating for us an eternal glory that does not compare to anything we know here. All of our troubles are overwhelming to us unless they are compared to the only truth that puts them in the proper perspective:
Our troubles are lightweight. They’re momentary. That stuff that’s keeping you up all night? That’s lightweight stuff. It is momentary if you compare it to the weight of God’s glory right now.
- Right now we are the target of the enemy, but right now we are also honored by God.
- Right now we are the central focus of spiritual attack, but right now we are also the central focus of divine embrace.
- Right now, we are culturally hated and despised, but right now we are beloved—and when you weigh one versus the other, there is no comparison
What is the Bible’s answer to the uncertainty of this present reality? Here’s the answer:
Live, child of God, in the power of your certain future. We have no reason to despair despite the fact that our outer humanity is falling apart and decaying. Our inner humanity is breathing in new life every day.
So we do not set our sights on the things we can see with our eyes because all of that is fleeting; it will eventually fade away. Instead, we focus on things we cannot see, which live on and on. In fact, heaven and earth shall pass away, but His Word shall abide forever.
The very mention of a promised future is the revelation that the present reality is not the end.
It is but a passage, a gateway to what He invites us to live with, which is an expected future.
