That’s one of the questions Sharefaith‘s Daniel Threlfall asked me in an interview that will soon be published on their site. Here was his question in full, along with my reply.

I’ve heard that if I start giving my money to God, he’ll start blessing me with more. Is this true?

Well, you’ll be wasting his less, that’s for sure!

The apostle Paul says part of God’s curriculum is learning to be content with a lot and learning to be content with a little. Money is neither the great good nor the focus. The focus is on Christ’s whole life offering to us, and on our whole life offering to others.

The lilies of the field know that their father will give them the right mix of soil and sunshine and water. They don’t worry about stockpiling one more than the other. They just render their lily lives as their reasonable worship to him, and he always comes through in the end.

We always need to remember this: When one undertakes an activity in order to secure eternal reward or avoid eternal punishment, one is acting out of self-preservation. This is the very root that Christ intends to pluck up and discard. As he says in Luke 9:24, “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it” (NIV).