Week 2 - Day 4 [Charity]

Responsible Giving
This is an interesting topic tonight.  I'm going to try to describe the tightrope that I perceive is stretched out before me.  If I am going to step out in faith and Believe that God will honor my attempts at Giving, how much is enough or too much to give?  What would be responsible?  Irresponsible?  Does it matter?  Won't God honor whatever amount I give and make sure that I have enough?

After a lot of thought about this, here's what I'm coming up with...there are two factors to consider:  Faith and Stewardship.  If you take the perspective that everything belongs to God, and whatever we have is just on loan from Him, then you can make two conclusions:  1) We'd better be good stewards of what we have because it doesn't really belong to us, and 2) If we do manage His resources well, He'll make sure that we're taken care of.  So what does it mean to "manage His resources well"?  What do we have to do to be good stewards?

Even though I totally believe that God honors generous Giving, I don't believe He honors irresponsibly generous Giving, because the heart isn't in the right place.  This thought might be arguable, but I think that no matter what your financial condition is, whether you have enough to pay your bills or not, God will honor your Giving if you thoughtfully, prayerfully, intentionally Give 10% of whatever you earn to what you believe are thoughtful causes.  There are only 2 percentages of giving that are presented in the Bible - 10% and 100%.  I'm dead certain that 100% giving, as the widow gave at the temple, is only asked of anyone in extremely rare circumstances.  In fact, I think the widow was led to give all that she had in order to provide an object lesson for us.  So, the rest of us have been given the 10% figure to work with.  While I certainly couldn't argue with anyone that starts with 3% and adds a percent a year with a plan to reach 10%, I do Believe that God will honor anyone that starts with 10%, even if the math doesn't make sense with their current situation.

Sorry if this seems a little disjointed tonight.  It is getting late and while my sleep habits have been working out great this week, tonight is going to be an exception.  To bed shortly (hopefully before midnight), and then up at 4:00 AM and off to a meeting in Fargo, 3 hours away.  In summary anyway...Stewardship comes in the form of being intentional about Giving and sticking with 10% for now if your finances are in rough shape. Faith comes in the form of Believing that God will honor your intention to follow His will and trusting that He will make sure that you have enough.

Tomorrow is payday and time to put what I've been writing about this week into action.  My wife is accompanying me on my trip and we'll have plenty of time to work on our plan for Giving.

k - enough for tonight.