Giving back = sacrifice = worship

For years, I've wrestled with the idea of tithing/sacrificial giving. It has been a constant battle in my head, but this morning I finally found a good explanation to these deep-seated questions: 'Why give?"
Follow the link http://www.biblegateway.com/devotionals/stewardship-bible/
By addressing the WHY question more than the WHERE or WHO or HOW and HOW MUCH to give, it is easier to refocus and re-align my heart/mind/spirit according to God's will. As stated below, when I answer the why, it becomes clear to a believer like me to act upon not just think about the essence of giving back to the One who gives. My prayer is that God will transform my attitudes, thoughts, emotions and motives that need to change so that I may worship Him in love. 


God may be pleased, indeed delighted, with us even if we are giving the wrong amount, even if we are giving to unworthy or inappropriate cause. As we learn more about stewardship, of course, we will want to grown in those respects. We can spend a lifetime trying to find better ways of fulfilling God's expectations. But, for starters, our principal concern in giving should not be where to give, or how to give, or how much to give. First, let us focus on the why. If we give with hearts full of devotion for the God who loves us, then the questions of where and how and how much will work themselves out in time.

...worship is essential to faith... sacrifice is essential to worship. Why is that? Because worship, almost by definition, is the opposite of self-centeredness. Doing this always involves some element of self-denial or sacrifice, giving up something that we value, giving up attention to our wants and our needs in order to focus on God…

When we give cheerfully as an act of worship, the very act of giving moves us to lose interest in ourselves and to devote ourselves to God.

Learning to be content

Philippians 4:11

Paul wrote, "... I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances."
For many years, I've asked myself over and over again "what is contentment?" and what does it mean to be content. How do I learn be content in whatever state I am? 
Today, I think I found a bit of insight after reading Charles Spurgeon's response:
Covetousness, discontent, and murmuring are as natural to man as thorns are to the soil. We need not sow thistles and brambles; they come up naturally enough, because they are indigenous to earth: and so,we need not teach men to complain; they complain fast enough without any education. But the precious things of the earth must be cultivated. If we would have wheat, we must plough and sow; if we want flowers, there must be the garden, and all the gardener's care. Now, contentment is one of the flowers of heaven, and if we would have it, it must be cultivated; it will not grow in us by nature; it is the new nature alone that can produce it, and even then we must be specially careful and watchful that we  maintain and cultivate the grace which God has sown in us.


Indeed, in as much as it takes time and attention to grow flowers, learning to be content is not only an attitude to cultivate but also a lifestyle to pursue. It is not easy to be content in this world that promotes materialism, power and  ideologies antithetical to what Christ modeled, i.e., humility and self-sacrifice. How do I discipline a wayward heart? How do I redirect my focus so that I can see that the path I'm taking leads to the one true purpose of my existence? I feel that 2012 is my year of reckoning: not "retribution" but "calculation" of where I have been, where I am in my life now and where I'm going in the future, or better yet, where God is taking me...