Question: How should we give?

Answer: Cheerfully! (2 Cor 9:7)

You remember these? I grew up in a church that had these round brass collection plates with the little fuzzy padded bottom to them so that the coins wouldn't clang as they were passed. I don't remember many people overly enjoying the offertory time of the church service. If anything, the offertory special music was placed there so that there would be something enjoyable for the people as they gave their money to the church.  It wasn't until I started attending Harvest Bible Chapel when I learned and saw the importance of the offertory being a joyful and cheerful time.
It was one of my first Sunday's as a visitor at Harvest when the pastor stood up in the front and said, "Harvest, it's time to give our offering!" and then people actually cheered and clapped! My first thought was, "these people are kinda weird..." but then, being the good Bible student I was, I corrected that thought with this thought, "well that's cute..." But now, 3 years later from that particular instance, I've come to the realization that our giving should ALWAYS be cheerful and never out of grumbling. Our gifts to the Lord and His house is vitally important. 10%? sure, why not %20?  In whatever amount, our giving should be with a joyful and cheerful spirit. Why? Because God loves a cheerful giver (2 Cor 9:7).  That whole section of scripture (2 Cor 9:6-15) gives great insight into God's blessing of the cheerful giver.  Vs 6, "whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully."
Now, let me stop there before you think I'm going to become Joel Olsteen. This passage is not purposed to tell the believer that if they give as much money as they can to a ministry, that they'll become richer exponentially to the ratio of their giving. "Reaping bountifully" may be a financial bounty, but don't be sad if it is a spiritual bounty, or a relational bounty. We should not expect that our giving to the Lord should only be blessed by his giving to us more money. Our giving to the Lord should NEVER feed our fleshly desire for wealth. Our giving to the Lord should ALWAYS motivate our reliance upon our Lord and faith that he provides for our NEEDS, and not necessarily our wants.

Let's finish this particular passage before moving onto another passage. Vs 7-15:
"Each one must give as he has made up his mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.  And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things and all times, you may abound in every good work.  As it is written,
"He has distributed freely, he has given to the poor; his righteousness endures forever."
He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.  You will be enriched in every way for all your generosity, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God. For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints, but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God.  By their approval of this service, they will glorify God because of your submission flowing from your confession of the gospel of Christ and the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others, while they long for you and pray for you, because of the surpassing grace of God upon You.  Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!"

Most, if not all of this passage speaks for itself, not needing much additional commentary about why we give cheerfully. But the most important thing that I want to hammer even more in this passage is the last sentence.  We give cheerfully because we are so thankful for the amazing and undeserved gift that God is given us! "his inexpressible gift" is Jesus Christ. That gift, there is nothing that we could do, say or give that would come close to "paying back" if you will. But it is our pleasure and honor to be able to give whatever we can joyfully so as to honor the Lord for his gift of salvation to us!

I want to close by bringing you to 1 Chronicles 29:9, "Then the people rejoiced because they had given willingly, for with a whole heart they had offered freely to the Lord.  David the king also rejoiced greatly."  This was their response after giving A TON of wealth to the house of the Lord, being the temple that Solomon would be building soon after David's death. I mean TONS! If we were to give in the amount that the people of Israel gave during that particular time, it would be easily into the billions of dollars equivalence.  They gave "freely."  They didn't grumble, they didn't hesitate, they gave and it was genuine because they knew the Lord delivers. Take some time to read 1Chronicles 28-29 and see the example of cheerfulness that we should have in giving back to the Lord.

In all things, we need to recognize that nothing is really ours.  God has blessed us with everything. It is only when you realize this, that you can start to let go of your hard grip on your wealth or weekly paycheck and open your palms in worship by trusting the Lord in His provision. God LOVES the cheerful giver. Don't hesitate to give back willingly and with a whole heart, and see how the Lord will bless you!