As I’ve talked to Christians all over the world about financial giving, one question has rarely come up. I often hear questions like “What should I give to?” or “Where should I give it?” or “To whom, how much, or when should I give?” These are all important tactical and transactional questions to ask.

But there’s a key question that few people ask, and it is a transformational one: “Why give in the first place?” When I ask others this question, I hear many different answers, such as, “Because this is a strong, evangelical ministry” or “Because God commands us to give” or “Because giving is part of our Christian heritage.”

We certainly do give for all these reasons, but I think the question of “Why give?” must be answered at a much deeper level. Perhaps we can ask this question a different way: If “[t]he earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it” (Psalm 24:1 NIV), and if God has entrusted these things to us as stewards, then why has He given us more than we need?

I believe 2 Corinthians 9:11 answers this question: “You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God” (NIV).

Here we discover that giving is the very reason God enriches his people in the first place and that the result of our giving is God’s glory.