August 12, 2014

Giving When You Think You Can’t

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[intro] A few years ago, we went through a series on generosity called, “He Gave, We Give.” In response to some of the common questions that followed the sermons, I blogged my answers each topic.[/intro]

What do I do if I’m really struggling financially?  Should I give anyway?

I know there are a lot of people facing this very question in Michigan these days (not to mention all the broke college students around here).  Let me answer in the form of a story from my own life.

When my wife and I were newly married, we were not financial givers at all.  And I mean it, we didn’t give at all.   We thought we couldn’t.  Then we had a kid and went down to one income.  Now we really couldn’t give.  Eventually, we bought a house and as any homeowner knows, that’s not a cheap thing.  Not to mention the fact that during the course of this season, we had another kid.

Now we had a mortgage, a car payment, a bunch of credit card debt, some student loans (which my father in law graciously helped with), two kids to feed and clothe, and we were doing this all on one income.  In fact, my income was so low that I had to do freelance work on the side to make ends meet.

I can’t remember what initially challenged us in this area, but we began to feel convicted that as Christ-followers, we should be giving generously.  That was a struggle for us since we hadn’t been giving at all!  We decided one day that we were going to change cold turkey. From that day forward, by God’s grace, we were always going to give away a minimum of 10% of our income to the church and look for other opportunities to be generous as well.

By God’s grace, that’s what we have been able to do.  We have never gone without heat or clothes or groceries (we almost did once and someone provided several bags of food for us).  Granted, we have had to do without some stuff, but God has always richly provided for our needs and a great much more.

As our income has grown, we have been able to give more.  Now, we have no debt other than our mortgage.  This puts us in the great position to be continue to be generous.

Give something.

Remember this verse?

God is able to make all grace overflow to you so that because you have enough of everything in every way at all times, you will overflow in every good work. – 2 Cor 9:8

Even if you don’t give big, I encourage you to give something.  The faith part comes when you give it to God before you spend any of your income on anything else.  You are then forced to trust God to give you enough of everything in every way at all times.

 

This post originally appeared on noeljesse.com.

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