Thanks+giving

Early last week in my Bible readings I came to Psalm 50.

Psalm 50:8 begins "I have no complaint about your sacrifices or the burnt offerings you constantly offer."

Then the next verse begins with that scary word:

BUT

But what?

I'll paraphrase the next verse this way:

"But I really don't need them because they are already mine."

God seems to be saying that it's great that the people were offering sacrifices but he didn't really need them.  Which seems a bit confusing, and that's where verse 14 adds some clarification:

Make thankfulness you sacrifice to God and keep the vows you made to the most high. (Psalm 50:14 NLT)

The Psalmist is trying to tell us that there is a wrong way to give.

If we think that everything we have belongs to us, and that WE are giving to God out of OUR stuff that we earned, be might have a bit of a bad attitude when we give it.  Paul alludes to this in 2 Corinthians 9:7 where he writes that we are to give cheerfully, not grudgingly.  When we give, it is out of recognition that everything we have is God's.  We then return a portion to God out of thanks for what He has given to us.

Offering and Thanksgiving are inextricably linked:

Thanks=Giving

(Maybe I'm getting a couple of holidays mixed up here.)

The Psalmist alludes to another kind of bad giving attitudes in verse 14: "keep the vows you made".

Some people make vows to God.  A vow goes something like this:

"You do this for me, I'll do this for You."

So if God comes through on His end of the deal, we then offer whatever it is we said we would offer.  It's a simple transaction.  But sometimes we might have an attitude problem.  We might be handing over payment with a bit of reluctance--not wanting to part with our hard earned stuff for what we have received, like maybe we resent having to pay so much for something.

"Bad attitude", the Psalmist writes.  What should our attitude be?

Make gratitude your attitude.

Give--and give thanks.

Many years ago I was working for an organization and one of the employees was helping me load my truck with supplies.  When we were done, I thanked him.

He then began to exclaim, "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" over and over again.

I told him I was confused, he had helped me load my truck, so why was he thanking me?  He replied, "Because you said, 'thank you.'"

I drove away in tears.  This man had worked many years for this Christian organization, but when it was time to get paid, it was just a transaction.  Payment for services rendered.  No sign of gratitude (at least not in a way that was meaningful to him).

I had to ask myself, "What is my attitude?  Do I have an attitude of gratitude?"

Let our giving be thanks and our thanks be giving.  It's easy to mouth the words, "Happy Thanksgiving."  It takes a bit more effort to show we are truly thankful.