Duty AND Delight (Or Grapes VS. Honeycombs)

Candy's thoughts: I distinctly remember the day when Steve and I decided to tithe to our local church. We were new believers and the concept of giving a set amount to our church was truly daunting. We were living in one of the most expensive towns in the state of Connecticut, in the cheapest rental house we could find, and we had wild mushrooms growing up through the floor in one of our rooms! We just had our second child with a third one following soon after, the business that Steve was working in was struggling (and did fail), so financially we were looking at an uncertain future. But Steve did a biblical study on tithing as a Christian minimum and was persuaded that we should do this. So I said "Okayyyyyy, we'll see how this goes" and more than 35 years later I can validate C. H. Spurgeon's claim that "Our Father holds the funds, and what we lose for His sake He can provide for us."

Financial support of a local church is a Biblical duty, but that alone shouldn't be the end goal. Just a few days ago I was reading 2 Cor 9: 6-7 where Paul makes the "God loves a cheerful giver" statement that is famously known by many both in the church and outside of it as well. I hope you like Spurgeon's attempt to make us understand the delight part of the duty to give as much as I did:

Spurgeons' thoughts: "God loves a cheerful giver. What is meant by a 'cheerful giver?' It means giving not reluctantly or out of compulsion, not giving as though we wished we could avoid it, and therefore giving as little as possible. Not counting the pennies and reckoning them to be as precious as drops of blood, but giving with ease, spontaneity, freeness, pleasure - this is a cheerful giver. 

To be this cheerful giver, we must give  proportionately as the Lord has prospered us. Much has been said about giving a tenth of one's income to the Lord. I think that is a Christian duty that none should for a moment question. If it were a duty under the Jewish law, much more is it so now, under the Christian dispensation. But it is a great mistake to suppose the Jews only gave a tenth; they gave much more than that. The tenth was the payment they must make, but after that came all the freewill offerings, all the various gifts at different seasons of the year. We are not to make an estimate of what to give by what will appear respectable or by what is expected of us by other people. We are to give as God has prospered us.

A cheerful giver is also a willing giver. We are not to be like the young grape that must be pressed and squeezed to get the juice out because it is not ripe. Rather, we ought to be like the honeycomb dripping spontaneously with fresh honey...

The cheerful giver also gives earnestly, and that includes the gifts of time and service. A cheerful giver always wishes he could give ten times as much; a cheerful doer always wants to have more capacity for doing. God loves this cheerfulness, this heartiness, this wholeheartedness, this intenseness, this fire of the soul."