Belongs To The Lord

One-tenth of the produce of the land, whether grain from the fields or fruit from the trees, belongs to the LORD and must be set apart to him as holy. Leviticus 27:30

BEGINNING WITH THE FIRST TIME we give our child an allowance, we have the opportunity to speak into how our child will deal with money as we encourage him to spend some, save some, and give some to God. In this way we have the opportunity to shape our child’s understanding of himself as a steward —someone entrusted with God’s money, which is to be used in ways that please and honor God. We can also begin to help our child build a hedge against covetousness. Every time an amount is set aside for God, he will have to deal with his desire to spend it on something for himself. To give to God is to not spend on ourselves. And to face this crisis with every allowance and later every paycheck he receives will test him again and again.

But like everything else we set out to teach our children, they learn more from our example than from our instructions. As our children grow, they begin to grasp more about money —not only about how much we make and how we spend it, but also about our attitudes toward it and God’s claims on our money. They see whether we are cheerful or reluctant givers. And every time they see us live out our confidence that we can live on 90 percent or less of our income, it’s as if we say to them, “This same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19).

Lord, we want to be cheerful givers, and we want to raise cheerful givers. But we also find that there are so many other things we want, so many things that promise to make us happier than giving back what already belongs to you. Help us to reject the lie that what we need is more to spend on ourselves and instead choose to believe that you will supply all of our needs.