Giving Is God's Health Check Up

Lately God’s been speaking to me a lot about the subject of giving. In this time, I’ve come to many conclusions. For the sake of length I’ll only focus on one. Giving is God’s health check up.

Giving is unique in that it gives a direct report of the status of our heart and measure of our faith. When the offering plate passes or the church takes an unannounced special offering what is your initial response? We all know we are able to fake the “church” smile, paint a face, give the body language that says we’re on board, but what is your inner response? That is the response God is after. God is always, always, after our heart.

Lately I’ve seen chatter on some of the Christian Facebook groups I belong to about giving and specifically about tithing. Do we need to tithe when our bills are past due? Do we tithe when we have almost nothing left? I have some thoughts on this that hopefully will tie my main point together.

Sometimes giving doesn’t cost us much and sometimes it feels like it costs us everything. It’s easy to pay your tithe, give an extra offering or donation when there’s excess in the bank or our wallets. It’s easy to donate that shirt when you actually realized you had two. It’s easy to volunteer when you’re already on a break or vacation. However giving when it costs you something, our comfort, what little time we have, or our self reliance is a true picture of our hearts. Giving when it hurts, when it costs us, is giving that stretches our faith. Giving when it doesn’t make sense to our mind, but agrees with our spirit is when we put the Word of God into practice. Giving when you feel like you don’t have anything left, leaves you with God as your only hope. Let me say, that is the only hope you need.

Over the past 2 years, my family and I have been in a financial valley. It’s not for any sin we committed, but simply because we felt God call us to step out in faith and I become a stay at home mom. God asked us to give. Give up an entire income that was actually the higher one. Give up a job that was secure with excellent benefits, a company car, great coworkers, and even a wonderful boss. Give up all that to invest in our children and our home. It hasn’t been easy and it would take me multiple pages to share the amount of struggles we’ve faced. However, it would take me even longer to talk about the amount of blessings we've reaped. In these 2 years God has exposed the inner depths of my soul and heart when it comes to giving. Can I give that $20 to that homeless man when my electric is past due? Can I make a meal for someone in need when what little food we have needs to get us to next week? Can I pay for that person’s drink in the gas station that didn’t quite have enough money? The answer is yes and these are all things God had me do. Yet, God has continued to meet all of our needs and show up in undeniable ways to say “He’s got us.”

One of my favorite testimonies was two Christmases ago. I had just left my job 3 months before and already we were in the red. It was our oldest daughter’s first Christmas and we couldn’t pay our electric, let alone buy her any gifts. I ended up actually having to go to a ministry I referred my clients to when I worked as a nurse advocate. Walking in there I felt ashamed and like a failure. How could I possibly be in this situation with my education and abilities? As I met with the case worker, it wasn’t long before I was in tears. She handed me tissues and then made a call to pay our overdue electric bill of almost $500 in full. I was a blubbering mess because she didn't know me or my story, but she treated me with the love of Christ. She then proceeded to ask me about my pregnancy. I was pregnant with our second child at the time. She signed me up for a baby club that would give me special gifts for the new baby as well as, our other child. She then had a coworker bring in a slew of brand new items like handbags, robes, and slippers and just told me to pick anything I wanted. This woman didn’t stop there. She brought me over to their food pantry and had me load up a shopping cart. As I walked up and down those aisles praising God, she kept appearing with a new gifts to bless me with. Finally she asked if we had Christmas gifts for our daughter. I lost it. She brought out brand new toys for Daisy, maternity clothes for me and even clothes for my husband. Before I left she spoke a word of encouragement saying God has me where He wants me to be, a stay at home mom.

I went into that ministry to get an electric bill paid and left that ministry with a car packed to the brim. God lavished us that day in a way that I could only give praise to Him. I kept recalling Phillipians 4:19 “And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” God met our need and then some. He is an extravagant giver. Yet let me preface all of this by making a very clear point. Even though we were bleeding financially, we still tithed. I even tithed online to my church before Sunday to make sure I followed through. My mindset then and now is “When my situation seems like there’s no way out, that is when I need to give the most.” Why? Luke 6:38 “ Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.” That last line of amount you give you get back can be interpreted as solely monetary alone. It is seeing that my $20 may not be your $20. Perhaps my $20 is my last money, but you have $20,000 in the bank. Again God knows when we are giving our all or what feels like our all versus our scraps.

God has attached promises with giving. It is never just throwing away our money, our time, or our talents. It’s as if we are making an investment in a spiritual stock market, but this stock market always guarantees a return! I think the reason we may feel we don’t get back what we put in is because we limit God to how it can be returned. We secretly say “God I’m giving you this $50, so I’m expecting back $100 or more.” Money is not our only guaranteed form of return. From experience, I have given my money and reaped a better marriage, food in my fridge, gas in my car, gift cards to go out for a nice meal, and a child who at one year old could recognize the name of Jesus. These are all returns on my giving. I also think we carry into giving an "instant" mentality. When we give, we will see our return quickly. However anyone who is a Investor by trade, knows a return takes time. Anyone who is a farmer or gardener knows when you sow, you almost never immediately reap. There is a maturing time that has to come in the natural and I think that carries over into the spiritual too.

Now as my heart has changed about giving I feel I understand 2 Corinthians 9:6-7 better “The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” I don’t give because I am scared of God’s wrath. I don’t give because I feel pressured. I give because God has asked me to. God also at times stretches me to give my last. I realize I have no need to worry about what will happen next because I know God will return my investment. I know God is trustworthy and has proved Himself trustworthy. I am happy to give whatever He asks because I want to please Him. I am happy to give because I know that He will do something powerful and miraculous in my life as a result. The more I trust God as I give, the healthier my heart becomes.