I’ve heard that phrase quite a few times by some relatively prominent pastors. I’ve also heard it from a fair share of prosperity gospel teachers. I think they mean something different when the say that.
How You Can Never Out Give God
The Scriptures are clear that every good and perfect gift comes from above. This principle alone makes it impossible to out give God. If you give someone a good gift then it you did that because “He first gave to you”. When we understand that God owns everything then it’s not much of a jump to understand that it’s impossible to out give God because we don’t have anything to give.
Randy Alcorn once said, God is the greatest giver in the universe, and He won’t let you outgive Him.” If what people mean by this phrase is something similar to Alcorn, then I’ll just give it a thousand “amen’s” and shut my pie hole. The Father gave us Jesus. He has in Him give us every spiritual blessing. Nobody is going to top that.
How You Can Out Give God
This, however, isn’t how I most often hear that phrase. What I hear more of is something like this:
A man was motivated to give a rather substantial gift to help start a local church. He gave $100,000 as a gift to the church. The next day he was called and given a $250,000 bonus. He called the pastor back to share this testimony of God’s provision and said, ‘You cannot out give God, pastor. I’ve tried and it doesn’t work.”
Now, I’m not intending to question this story or God’s provision. Not for one second. I’ve seen things like this myself. There have been times when we’ve given sacrificially to someone else and then saw God’s provision back upon us. I’ve had times when I’ve felt absolutely empty and dry and yet opened my mouth to offer what little bit of comfort and counsel I could only to find my own soul strengthened. So, I’m not intending to question that at times God does do exactly this.
But…
Doesn’t the word sacrifice mean something?
If I give as a backdoor way to achieve a blessing that seems a bit off to me. Not only that, I’ve also known people taken in by the shysters on television who gave their last dollars into a sham ministry with the hopes that it’ll come back to them in a blessing. It didn’t. They ended up broke, discouraged, and questioning the goodness of God.
By 1885 the book sales for Charles Spurgeon totaled some 26 million dollars. And as Christian George has shown that is only a small fraction of what he would have acquired. Yet when Spurgeon died in order to make ends meet his wife had to sell the furniture, Charles’ library, and their estate. He didn’t get back what he gave.
And that’s the point that I’m attempting to make. It is possible to give to God and not get back what you gave.
That is not to say that you will not be greatly rewarded. It’s not to say that you’ll look back upon your life with one ounce of regret or feel as if God ripped you off. Those with big hearts to give and sacrifice usually reflect the heart of David Livingstone who said, “What sacrifice? I never made a sacrifice.”
So yeah, you cannot out give God. But you might give and never get it back. You’ll give years of your life that you will never get back. You might give money that you never see again. You might shed tears and endure wounds that never heal. You might even lose your own life. But you won’t regret that for one second. Because these light and momentary afflictions are preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
I suppose you can out give in the transient. But you’ll never out do him in the eternal.
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