We Give Thee but Thine Own

Honor the LORD from your wealth and from the first of all your produce; so your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will overflow with new wine. Proverbs 3:9-10

The Scriptures instruct us to honor the Lord from our wealth. “Wealth” has a very different connotation these days, doesn’t it? But indeed, we are wealthy: in material things – food, shelter, clothing, “stuff” – and in love, forgiveness and grace!

All that we have is God’s. He has given it to us, and as this hymn says, it is a trust from Him. When we give to Him from our wealth, we are giving Him His own. Giving of our wealth also shows that we trust Him to provide for all our needs.

As we receive His blessings, we must also be good stewards of them. I believe that honoring the Lord from my wealth not only means giving back to God through my tithes and offerings, but showing my gratefulness for His blessings through how I spend the money He has given me. Honoring the Lord from my wealth means that I don’t spend more than I have, and that I don’t waste what I have been given. (Full disclaimer here: as usual, I am in no means perfect in this regard. But as I long to be less like the world and more like Jesus, I am striving to examine more closely the habits in my life that make me more accustomed to this world, instead of less.)

God uses what we give to accomplish His will in the world. Could He do it without our gifts? Indeed. But He chooses to use our gifts to involve us in His work, locally and globally. Our gifts from our wealth support bringing back the lambs who have strayed from the fold, tending the lone and fatherless, releasing captives and bringing the news of the Gospel to those who are lost. When we honor the Lord from our wealth, we prove that we believe His word.

But who am I and who are my people that we should be able to offer as generously as this? For all things come from You, and from Your hand we have given You. 1 Chronicles 29:14


We Give Thee but Thine Own
Words by William W. How

We give Thee but Thine own,
Whate’er the gift may be;
All that we have is Thine alone,
A trust, O Lord, from Thee.

May we Thy bounties thus
As stewards true receive,
And gladly, as Thou blessest us,
To Thee our firstfruits give.

O hearts are bruised and dead,
And homes are bare and cold,
And lambs for whom the Shepherd bled
Are straying from the fold.

To comfort and to bless,
To find a balm for woe,
To tend the lone and fatherless
Is angels’ work below.

The captive to release,
To God the lost to bring,
To teach the way of life and peace—
It is a Christ-like thing.

And we believe Thy Word,
Though dim our faith may be;
Whate’er for Thine we do,
O Lord,We do it unto Thee.