We can only give cheerfully when we give from a place of freedom. This comes as we value the blessing in giving more than the empty reward of keeping it for ourselves.

Am I giving willfully with a happy heart, or reluctantly and out of compulsion?

Exodus 35:4-5: Then Moses said to the entire Israelite community, "This is what the LORD has commanded: Take up an offering among you for the LORD. Let everyone whose heart is willing bring this as the LORD's offering: gold, silver, and bronze…

2 Corinthians 9:7: Each person should do as he has decided in his heart-not reluctantly or out of compulsion, since God loves a cheerful giver.

2 Corinthians 8:3-4: I can testify that, according to their ability and even beyond their ability, of their own accord, they begged us earnestly for the privilege of sharing in the ministry to the saints,

Everything we receive comes from God’s hand.

Am I acknowledging the Giver and His provision by giving out of what I receive, and as often as I receive, or do other wants and desires come first?

Exodus 23:19: Bring the best of the firstfruits of your land to the house of the LORD your God.

Deuteronomy 26:1-4: When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, and you take possession of it and live in it, take some of the first of all the land's produce that you harvest from the land the LORD your God is giving you and put it in a basket. Then go to the place where the LORD your God chooses to have his name dwell. When you come before the priest who is serving at that time, say to him, 'Today I declare to the LORD your God that I have entered the land the LORD swore to our ancestors to give us.' "Then the priest will take the basket from you and place it before the altar of the LORD your God.

Proverbs 3:9: Honor the LORD with your possessions and with the first produce of your entire harvest.*

The Old Testament points to the New, but am I at least using the Old Testament principle of giving 10% as my starting point?

Genesis 28:22: This stone that I have set up as a marker will be God's house, and I will give to you a tenth of all that you give me.

Numbers 18:25-26: The LORD instructed Moses, "Speak to the Levites and tell them: When you receive from the Israelites the tenth that I have given you as your inheritance, you are to present part of it as an offering to the LORD-a tenth of the tenth.

Deuteronomy 14:22: Each year you are to set aside a tenth of all the produce grown in your fields.

2 Chronicles 31:5-6: When the word spread, the Israelites gave liberally of the best of the grain, new wine, fresh oil, honey, and of all the produce of the field, and they brought in an abundance, a tenth of everything. As for the Israelites and Judahites who lived in the cities of Judah, they also brought a tenth of the herds and flocks, and a tenth of the dedicated things that were consecrated to the LORD their God. They gathered them into large piles.

Malachi 3:8-10: Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing me!" "How do we rob you?" you ask. "By not making the payments of the tenth and the contributions. You are suffering under a curse, yet you-the whole nation-are still robbing me. Bring the full tenth into the storehouse so that there may be food in my house. Test me in this way," says the LORD of Armies. "See if I will not open the floodgates of heaven and pour out a blessing for you without measure.

Luke 11:42: But woe to you Pharisees! You give a tenth of mint, rue, and every kind of herb, and you bypass justice and love for God. These things you should have done without neglecting the others.

2 Corinthians 8:12: For if the eagerness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have.

Generosity is a noted biblical giving principle that takes us beyond percentage based giving, reflecting the generosity of God.

Am I giving in an unselfish and open-handed way, or just doing the bare minimum?

Exodus 35:4-5: Then Moses said to the entire Israelite community, "This is what the LORD has commanded: Take up an offering among you for the LORD. Let everyone whose heart is willing bring this as the LORD's offering: gold, silver, and bronze;

1 Chronicles 29:14-16: But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? For everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your own hand. For we are aliens and temporary residents in your presence as were all our ancestors. Our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope. LORD our God, all this wealth that we've provided for building you a house for your holy name comes from your hand; everything belongs to you.

Luke 21:1-4: He looked up and saw the rich dropping their offerings into the temple treasury. He also saw a poor widow dropping in two tiny coins. "Truly I tell you," he said, "this poor widow has put in more than all of them. For all these people have put in gifts out of their surplus, but she out of her poverty has put in all she had to live on."

1 Timothy 6:18: Instruct them to do what is good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and willing to share,

2 Corinthians 8:1-5: We want you to know, brothers and sisters, about the grace of God that was given to the churches of Macedonia: During a severe trial brought about by affliction, their abundant joy and their extreme poverty overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. I can testify that, according to their ability and even beyond their ability, of their own accord, they begged us earnestly for the privilege of sharing in the ministry to the saints, and not just as we had hoped. Instead, they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us by God's will.

The nature of giving is inherently sacrificial so it should sting a little. It’s about letting go of our own desires and wants because we think it’s worth it to put God first.

Am I giving in a way that even involves some sense of loss, or am I holding on to what I’d rather keep?

2 Samuel 24:24: The king answered Araunah, "No, I insist on buying it from you for a price, for I will not offer to the LORD my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing." David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for twenty ounces of silver.

Luke 21:1-4: He looked up and saw the rich dropping their offerings into the temple treasury. He also saw a poor widow dropping in two tiny coins. "Truly I tell you," he said, "this poor widow has put in more than all of them. For all these people have put in gifts out of their surplus, but she out of her poverty has put in all she had to live on."

2 Corinthians 8:1-5: We want you to know, brothers and sisters, about the grace of God that was given to the churches of Macedonia: During a severe trial brought about by affliction, their abundant joy and their extreme poverty overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. I can testify that, according to their ability and even beyond their ability, of their own accord, they begged us earnestly for the privilege of sharing in the ministry to the saints, and not just as we had hoped. Instead, they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us by God's will.

1 Timothy 6:18: Instruct them to do what is good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and willing to share…

As God has made us a spiritual family, we should be interested and invested in the family mission.

Similarly, God has placed and arranged us as indispensable members of the body of Christ, so we should naturally care about and contribute to the health and proper functioning of the body where God has placed us.

Am I considering the appropriateness of prioritizing my local church and intentionally directing my giving there?

1 Corinthians 9:6-11: Or do only Barnabas and I have no right to refrain from working? Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat its fruit? Or who shepherds a flock and does not drink the milk from the flock? Am I saying this from a human perspective? Doesn't the law also say the same thing? For it is written in the law of Moses, Do not muzzle an ox while it treads out grain. Is God really concerned about oxen? Isn't he really saying it for our sake? Yes, this is written for our sake, because he who plows ought to plow in hope, and he who threshes should thresh in hope of sharing the crop. If we have sown spiritual things for you, is it too much if we reap material benefits from you?

1 Corinthians 12:14-18, 20, 24-25: Indeed, the body is not one part but many. If the foot should say, "Because I'm not a hand, I don't belong to the body," it is not for that reason any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, "Because I'm not an eye, I don't belong to the body," it is not for that reason any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But as it is, God has arranged each one of the parts in the body just as he wanted. As it is, there are many parts, but one body. which our respectable parts do not need. Instead, God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the less honorable, so that there would be no division in the body, but that the members would have the same concern for each other.

Ephesians 2:19: So, then, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints, and members of God's household…

1 Timothy 5:17-18: The elders who are good leaders are to be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching. For the Scripture says: Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain, and, "The worker is worthy of his wages."

Anything given to God is of course an act of worship, so all the above giving principles should be practiced as forms of worship.

Am I giving in a way that reflects my love for Jesus, or a divided heart?

Matthew 2:11: Entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and falling to their knees, they worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

Matthew 6:21: For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Mark 14:3-6: While he was in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, as he was reclining at the table, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured it on his head. But some were expressing indignation to one another: "Why has this perfume been wasted? For this perfume might have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor." And they began to scold her. Jesus replied, "Leave her alone. Why are you bothering her? She has done a noble thing for me.”