Giving makes you wealthy. I will stand by this statement to the end of my days - here or in heaven. The riches you get are not necessarily cash however. I do not support the philosophy any of the evangelists who suggest that you can get material riches by giving to God. That philosophy is about the most arrogant and hypocritical form of religion out there.

I do not know how many other people have noticed this. When I give of my money as well as my time, I feel richer. I have not tracked my net worth and compared how it grows when I give money versus when I do not, so I do not have empirical evidence to back up my claim. Even if there is no actual gain in wealth, it is still worth doing for three main reasons.

First, I believe that I am a Christian. Since I believe in His sacrifice for us, how can I possibly justify keeping all of my wealth and time to myself? I know I cannot make it to heaven by my actions, but do I really believe if I cannot match any of my actions to the teachings and example I am basing my belief on? I fall far short time and again, but I do try.

Secondly, being able to give away money and possessions does have a way to help me in my life here. By giving away, I have to devalue money and material items in my life. They must be less important to me than something else. Otherwise I would not be able to give them away. This is important because it forces me to distance myself from those things and see the bigger picture.

Finally, being committed to giving forces me to myself as a steward of those riches. Those riches are not mine, but I am caring for them for somebody else. Whenever I am taking care of something for somebody else, I treat it better. By being a steward of money to be given away, I help force myself to be more careful with it. This attitude spills over to the money that I am keeping for myself.

Giving things away is a great way to make you feel richer. Beyond feeling good, for most world religions, giving is a part of those spiritual teachings we keep working to learn. Seeing that money is only a part - truly a small part - of the big picture of life is a gift that giving bestows on us. Finally, becoming a steward of money that we are giving to others helps foster an attitude of responsibility for the money that we currently have.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!