READ: Ecclesiastes 11:1, 4-6
“Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over...” – Luke 6:38
Whenever you give an offering in church, it must be received at two levels. First, your church receives it. Secondly, God receives it. It is important that your offering is received at both levels.
I want to cite two examples of unacceptable offerings from the Bible. First, blood money is not accepted in the house of the Lord (Matthew 27:6). When Judas attempted to return the thirty pieces of silver to the treasury of the church, the money was rejected because it was blood money! Modernday drug money is actually blood money. It is money that is earned by the destruction and killing of many lives through cocaine and related substances. Such money is not welcome in the church.
Another Scripture tells us that money from prostitution is not accepted in the church: Deuteronomy 23:18. The fact that the church has received the offering does not mean God has received the offering. If the Lord does not receive your offering, then you have wasted your money.
The first condition for having your offering accepted by God is that, it must not come from a wicked or sinful person. The church may receive it because they don’t know who you are or what you do. However, God does see and will not accept such an offering (Amos 2:22, 24).
The second condition is that, you must have a willing mind (1 Corinthians 8:12). If you give grudgingly, you will not receive your blessing; don’t bother to give if you don’t really want to. God loves a cheerful giver!