Most times I feel embarrassed going to some churches because of their expensive vow bill, most churches do not value their members who do not meet up to the required church vow bill. In some cases, measuring your spirituality with your ability to pay your vow, I have been a victim of this, as a result, i always feel guilty of not meeting up. But I learnt something about vowing yesterday, In this chapter.
In this bible chapter, it was clearly stated that God loveth a cheerful giver, there is a condition to be met before God extends his love upon you, which is being cheerful. And for a Christian to be cheerful, his giving must be according to his heart, I didn’t say this, it is written in the above bible screenshot.
Most times, the church heads (pastor/priest) decide the vow of their members. and as a result, some members will be discouraged coming to church because they don’t want to be embarrassed publicly, most of them will give grudgingly, as a result putting them in more pain because God will not extend his love to a giver that gave with grudge in his heart,
For example, these are receipt of some churches fixing their vow price
Which is prohibited by God, this receipt shows baptism 40 either in dollar or pans, baptism is not done anywhere but in the church. some Christians, after the wonderful experience they will go back home sad because they were not able to meet up the requirement financially, am not saying Christians are poor people, but not all hands are financially equal, I have seen Christian who prefer staying at home than going to church because they don’t have offering or their offering is little, this is as a result of the mindset built by the priest/pastor in the heart of their members.
Now listen, God instructed us in this chapter
He said, upon the first day of the week. The first day of the week is Sunday, let everyone of you (Christians) lay by him in store, not as the pastor or the priest sayeth neither the receipt, but as God hath prospered him. This means, the vow of a man who earns 70$ differs from the one who earns 40$ a week. I learnt that God cannot put any man under pressure concerning the material things of this world, so if any spiritual leader is telling you to donate more than what you earn, that may not be God talking.
Why was God less concern about at rich and more concern about the widow in this chapter
Jesus sat close to the treasury watching the quantity of offering that was cast into the offering box, He said “and many that were rich cast much” and Jesus looked beyond what the rich gave. In this chapter below, Jesus picked interest in the poor widow vow
The widow gave two mites, which was very small compared to what the rich gave.
and in verse 43 Jesus called his disciple, telling them that the poor widow has given more than the rich.
I got to understand the mystery behind giving. It is not just the money but the heart that giveth, how can the poor widow cast more than the rich? This is to show us that God is not interested in the physical materia quantity of man.
There is a clear difference between the church of man and the church of God, the church of man abides by the principle of man, while the church of God abides and obeys the principle of God.
In the church of man, you are only seen to be spiritual (Godly) when you give much offering every first day of the week like the rich men did, it's none of their business whether you are in good relationship with God or not. Of what benefit will it be, after given much offering at the end did not make heaven?
Because of man's selfish interest, man has made vowing a law. The early apostles in the bible paid less attention to much vowing, their primary focus at that time was to draw men to Christ. In this chapter
When paul the apostle travelled to preaching the gospel, no church communicated with him concerning giving and receiving, but he was surprised only his people in philippians gave him something, and paul told them, he never expected it, his major concern was about the relationship of the people with God,
He was literally not after their money(gift) as you can see in the above chapter.
So, as a christian you should not feel bad when you can’t meet up to the vow standard in your church, God does not exert pressure on men to pay their vow, the above bible chapter says “according as he purposeth in his heart” that means, if your vow does not come from your heart, it means you gave grudge or you gave to shoe off like the rich men did, and god is not pleased with such vow.
Thanks for reading, and
I pray the grace to understand the principles of God will be given into us, Amen.