God says, "Give and it shall be given unto you." I am not here to preach the "prosperity gospel" that we hear on television so much of the time, but I am here to talk about God's principle of giving. I have heard one single mother say "I can't afford to tithe." yet she smokes several packs of cigarettes each week and seems to struggle financially. Another said she couldn't afford to give but she and her daughter tan regularly and get pedicures and manicures often. We always seem to have money for what we want. Still another single mother pays her tithes and God blesses her with a new car. None of these people has a job making tons of money, but their priorities are different. I'm not trying to pick on single parents here. I know raising children alone has to be very difficult in many ways not just financially, but God's principles work no matter your situation.
I have witnessed the same types of comparisons in two parent families of similar income. The one which does not give to God saying they can't afford it constantly struggles the other is blessed. Satan has convinced those of you who don't give of a lie. You cannot look at your checkbook and determine the giving! If you set your mind to give God what is His first, everything else is taken care of!
I'm sure people think that my husband and I make a lot of money because our house is big and we are able to travel, but that just isn't true. In fact our income is low enough that if our son wants to go to Harvard he can go for free! However, we understand that all that we have is not really ours, it is God's. If God asked us to give up our home (which He has) and move, then we must do it. If He asks us to give up our jobs that we love and pay well (which He has) then we must do it. The thing is, every time God has asked us to give something up, He has always blessed us many times over.
When we gave up our 2400 square foot home in West Frankfort to move to Lincoln and live in about a 900-1000 square foot parsonage that had mushrooms growing up through the bathroom floor to pastor a church, we did it. I gave up my big beautiful home, but was blessed with a wonderful job. The community was economically depressed, yet I had one of the best paying jobs in the area which paid full family insurance! 3 in my family had to have surgery within about a year and a half's time and all it cost us was a small co-pay for the initial Dr. visit. THAT is being blessed. Not only was my job well paying with great benefits, I loved working there as well! We were able to purchase vacation timeshares while we lived there. My husband was able to keep his promise to his daughter that one day he would take her to Disney World. We have visited Disney, Universal and Sea World parks numerous times since then.
God then asked me to give up my job to come to Galesburg. I had to start the tenure process all over again, I took a paycut (I make over $10,000 less here) and family insurance would be almost $700 per month now. We can't afford that so we carry an individual plan on Darrell and the kids which costs a little less than half but has a deductible of $2500 on each of them ($7500 total if all were sick in the same year)!
In man's eyes I'm sure we looked nuts. Yes, Darrell would be making more, but it wouldn't make up for what we were giving up in my job. There also wasn't a place to live. We had to find a place to buy or rent within a couple of weeks.
We knew we were supposed to come to Galesburg so we trusted God. He provided us with a home that is approximately equal in size to our home in West Frankfort PLUS the one in which we lived in Lincoln! It is worth more than TWICE what our house in West Frankfort was worth, but only cost $30,000 more than that house did! That is GOD BLESSING!
We thought we would never be able to take our kids out of the country, just couldn't afford it, but we will be traveling to the Bahamas next month! The total cost of airfare and hotel for seven nights for all four of us totalling less than $500 (that's including port charges)! Tell me that God doesn't bless when we are faithful! God doesn't have to provide money. It is ALL His! Not just money but everything! We need to get past the idea that if we give $10, God will give us $100. We need to recognize God doesn't do things OUR way but HIS!
We once had a $10,000 debt completely wiped clean! God didn't drop the money in our laps. He simply got rid of the bill!
If you are obedient, God will bless you beyond your dreams! When you don't tithe you are in disobedience! I want to be obedient to the one who created me and all things of the universe! We don't give to see what blessings God will bestow, but it certainly is fun watching what He does when we are obedient!
