Growing Through Challenge - The Joy Of Intentional Giving

                 AN UNDERVALUED PART OF WORSHIP

If you are a Christian, do you consider your giving as a part of your worship?

Have you ever found yourself giving your money and yet missing the prayerful, worshipful experience that this gift was an actual offering to God Himself?

We risk missing out on some of God's most spectacular work in our lives if we miss really understanding this part of our worship experience.

                   PLEASE LISTEN FROM YOUR HEART

I have something on my heart that I sincerely hope will be useful in bringing new insights and joy to those who choose to read this little brochure. I am writing about what has been, for me and my family, a 30-plus year journey of glimpses of the invisible God working in sometimes remarkably visible ways.

                              UPSIDE-DOWN RULES

There are many ways to approach this subject, but perhaps a good place to start would be to remind us that God's Kingdom operates on a different set of principles than those we are accustomed to on planet Earth.

As a kind of potent reminder that there is a huge difference between the finite and the Infinite, Isaiah 55:8-9 provides us with a good jumping off point; "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the Lord. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Jesus Christ gave us quite a few examples in his teachings like some of the following:
     1) Those who want to be exalted should take the lowly position.
     2) Those who want to really find LIFE should start by LOSING YOURSELF in Christ.
     3) Those who desire to be served should start by serving others.
     4) Those who are interested in being the greatest should begin by taking on the role of servant to others.

So, don't be surprised at what we may find here. If fact, expect the unexpected!

                                     SURPRISE #1

You don't have to possess something in order to give it away!

Now that sounds kind of radical doesn't it? Are you fascinated just a little? Let's look at one "upside-down" idea as the Apostle Paul presents it to a struggling first-century church in Corinth, (2 Corinthians 8:1-3); "We want you to know, brothers and sisters, about the grace of God that has been granted to the churches of Macedonia; for during a severe ordeal of affliction, their abundant joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For as I can testify, they voluntarily gave according to their means, and even beyond their means."

Now, I lack adequate knowledge here for commentary on this passage, but I have tried to lift up for you in special print a few contrasting concepts upon which to think more deeply.

                            IMPORTANCE OF FAITH

One of the ultimate values our Creator is trying to develop in us during this earthly journey seems to be the value of faith. We are continually called upon to trust in a God we have never seen; To believe when there appears little or no reason to believe; To act in faith when circumstances may be pulling in the opposite direction.

Perhaps it is this supreme value of faith that is a large part of what makes prayerful, worshipful giving more than you think you can afford so meaningful and powerful.

I have come to believe that God may ask us to give ... (in large degree), not because He needs the money; rather because we need some lessons in living by faith which can be learned in no other way.

                       HOW TO GIVE BEYOND MEANS

I cannot tell you how to do it... but I can relate to you how God helped me and my family to experience the joy and power of it.

It was the mid '70's; I was between jobs and found myself sleepless and on my knees in the middle of the night, praying for God to provide for my family (our children were ages 7 and 9 at the time.) I was asking God to "give" to us. Perhaps you can identify with a time of similar anxiety.

                       THE UNEXPECTED RESPONSE

As I was intensely praying for our needs to be provided, somewhere in the back of my mind an old familiar verse (Luke 5:38) kept coming into my thoughts. I will try to repeat it here with the emphasis I felt at the time. "GIVE and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put in your lap. for the measure you give will be the measure you receive."

Here I was praying to receive and God seemed to be trying to tell me to give. It felt a bit strange since at the time I had no income! (Father, surely that little wrinkle in the plan didn't escape Your notice, did it?)

That is the night I started to learn something about God's "upside-down" economy of giving beyond your means.

                                 BEYOND TITHING

I am not talking here about "tithing". I had grown up being taught tithing and we had always practiced it. What I was glimpsing now was beyond that and something very different.

I actually started to get excited about the idea of "pledging" an amount that my family would give first to God each week, if He would somehow provide it. I felt this would come closer to "giving beyond our means" if we first gave to God and then wait on Him to supply our needs.

                                 CONSIDERATIONS

Because my wife is such a Godly woman, I knew that she would gladly sign-on to the idea. As I then considered our children, I wrote in my journal that night; "If we handle this right, God is giving us the wonderful opportunity of teaching our children great and unforgettable lessons in prayer, trust, and giving. What a priceless heritage if we could leave them such treasures!"

By the way, have you noticed how easy it is for children (and their parents) to get subtly caught up in current trendy "Brand Name" consumer items, sometimes at the cost of eternal values?

                             WHO AND HOW MUCH?

Over the years we had begun to give monthly support to several missionaries along with other Christian ministries. The bulk of our giving went to our local church. Perhaps like you, we received a lot of appeal letters soliciting our prayers and gifts. I decided that it might help our children get a larger perspective of the great need of others if we took the time at meals, etc. to actually read aloud together those letters and pray for the mentioned needs and about which ones should receive our next gifts.

                                   MY FIRST TEST

Okay, remember we're talking about 1970's dollars. With no job or income, our whole family started praying that if God would somehow provide us with $30 each week, we would give away that $30 first and pray for Him to supply our needs after that.

Well, believe it or not, from some unexpected source later that week we received a check for $30! I hate to admit it, but my first thought was, "Yeah... money for groceries"... pretty pitiful, huh? Thankfully my daughter was right there to say, "Look Daddy, it's the $30 we've been praying for to give!"

                             THIRTY YEARS LATER

There are so many stories I would love to share with you about these last 30 years of giving first to God. Let me just hit a few points.

As with most families we have been through the cycles of fat and lean times... but never a time when we couldn't give first to God.

Over and over we found that God's unexpected provisions were much more thrilling than extra money in the bank.

Our children never missed meals or had to wear rags.

Nor were they emotionally damaged by not having the "latest and greatest" of whatever trend might have been going around during any given month. In fact, in her first letter home from Baylor University in 1986, our daughter thanked us for the deep lessons in faith she learned while so young as we sat around the table and prayed over checks we sent out each week.

By the way, this is what I mean by INTENTIONAL giving. However you give, whether by writing a check, giving cash, using a bank draft... however you do it, please don't let it just happen! Make a conscious effort to offer your gift to the GOD OF THE UNIVERSE!

"They first gave themselves to the Lord."   (2 Corinthians 8.5) Maybe that is really how those early Christians gave "beyond their means.