Giving of our "treasure" allows us connect our best and most sincere efforts with the Kingdom agenda of our Creator.  We spend the best hours of our days and the best years of our lives expending our time, energy and effort exchanging our labor for monetary compensation.  Those of use who are blessed have also spent several of our peak years in school and training, studying, certifying and recertifying to become gainfully employed in a field or career of our interest.   

If we expect to "eat" then we should also expect to work accordingly, but Jesus himself said in Matthew 22 that the command to "love the Lord your God with all of your heart, all of your soul and all of your mind" is the first and greatest commandment.  With the necessity to pour so much into achieving and maintaining gainful employment, is it really possible to put God first in "all" in a society so based in capitalism? 

The answer is yes! We can literally live out Colossians 3:23-24 to "whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward" with our tithes and offerings of our time, talent and treasure.  This is a counter-culture, gratification-delaying, self-sacrificial concept, but it is pleasing to God.  Try it God's way and see that He will prove that His promises are yes and amen!