Giving Out of Need

In elementary school we learned how to subtract, how to "take away," leaving us with less than what we started with. Contrary to the laws of mathematics, God tells us that when we give, we will receive even more in return. "Give and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure -- pressed down, shaken together, and running over. For by your standard it will be measured to you in return" (Luke 6:38).

God's design for giving requires that we depend on His revelation rather than on our sense of reason. Logic would check the bank account before deciding how much is available to tithe. Scripture, however, tells us that all our wealth belongs to the Father and we are to give back to Him the first fruits of our labor (Deut. 10:14; 18:4-5). When we obey, we are trusting Him to take care of us ... which sometimes means choosing to ignore what makes sense, humanly speaking. God doesn't always provide in the manner we expect or desire. Instead, He satisfies our needs and blesses us in the way He knows will truly be the best for us.

When facing hard financial circumstances we can be tempted to justify holding onto our resources. But God, understanding the situation perfectly, knows that we give not simply out of our surplus, but out of our need. The Macedonian church, for example, gave generously even while experiencing affliction (2Cor 8:2). This pleased the Lord greatly because they were giving by faith out of their need not out of their excess. Anyone can give out of their excess. But when we give out of our need the Lord is blessed by our gift. We are to live out our lives sacrificially. Doing so with our finances is often a test of faith. God says if we will give, He will give back to us. Do we believe Him and make that sacrifice, or do we "wait and see" what we have left? We should give first ... give the first fruits of our labors ... and then take for ourselves. So many of us have that concept just the opposite of what it should be. We give first. Then we gain. We don't wait to see what we have left to give. We give first.

Ask God what He would like for you to give. Pray for the courage to obey. Give. Then eagerly await His blessings. We are to do it this way because that's the way it works. That's the way it pleases the Lord. And there is no better feeling than to do something knowing that it pleases our God.


********

This was a short post but it concludes my thoughts on giving and tithing. I probably could have just tacked this onto the bottom of my last blog but I didn't think to do that. Actually, I thought I'd have more to say about this but my "idea bottle" is empty. Ever have that happen? Where you sit there with your hands poised to strike the keys but just nothing comes to mind to write. That's me, but I am working with a handicap today. I got up off the couch last night to go fix dinner and my right foot was asleep and I just went down, boom! I was sprawled out all over the floor with my ankle going the opposite direction it was supposed to go. It's pretty swollen today and discolored but it really doesn't look as bad as I thought it would. Poor Michael had to do dinner all by himself last night. Usually we make eggs Benedict together. But he had to manage without my help last night. And dinner was so good too. It always tastes so much better when you don't have to help cook it. It's relatively easy to fix anyway but I usually fix the sauce. We make ours a little different than most people do. We scramble our eggs and we use fried spam as the meat. And I don't like cheese on mine while Michael does. We've just taken a tried and true recipe and customized it for our individual preferences and we end up with a real winner of a dinner. Well, I think I'll go elevate my foot for awhile. I'm not going to enjoy being laid up with a bad ankle at all. I have so many things I should be doing and so many things I want to be doing and I have to sit around and do none of them. But I will try and get some reading done today. And I have the feeling that I'm going to want to take a nap this afternoon too. I didn't do too badly through the night. I had to get up once or twice to go to the bathroom but I was able to do that without falling again so I don't think I'm doing too bad. I sure wish I could find my copy of Streams in the Desert but I just don't know where else to look for it. I was late getting my bed made and I didn't get to my morning devotional until just a few minutes ago and haven't quite got it finished but at least I got started on it. I guess late is better than not at all.

Franci is back up and running. She's been out of commission because of a computer problem. I figured it was either that or she'd been raptured because she went almost a month without blogging. I'm so happy she's got her problem corrected and is back blogging with us. Heather and her family are still on their trip. Right now she's attending a Christian Educational Conference in Colorado and then will be heading on toward home I think. I'm so glad she was able to attend this conference. And believe it or not but its put on by men! Did you catch that? Men are involved! Praise God! Somewhere there needs to be a happy medium between men controlling everything and men leaving everything up to the women to do. I think our churches are severely remiss in masculine leadership. The JWs were totally men controlling everything (women were definitely second-class members) totally! And now I find that in the Christian church (or the ones I'm familiar with) men don't do enough. We need good, strong leadership from our men! Now, ladies, how do we go about getting this from them??? How do we get men more involved? I mean, if we women just up and quit and said it was time for the men to stand up and lead, nothing would get done. But somehow we have to find that medium and stick to it. Our churches desperately need male leadership but I have absolutely no idea how to get them to lead. We have even had to go to female ushers because we don't have enough men interested in serving. Only 2 out of 9 deacon positions are held by men. This is really sad and I think something needs to be done about it but I'm just not sure how to fix the problem. How do we get the men to stand up and take the lead in leadership?

Stacy and Dan are healing nicely after their motorcycle accident last week. But keep them in your prayers. Steven has arrived in Liberia West Africa to spend the summer with the Gjerstads. Their church took up a love gift so they could buy themselves a car and hopefully Dan has seen to that. They really do need transportation. I'm so excited for them to do what they feel called to do. I worry about the kids but I think when you feel the Lord leading you you pretty much have to go along with Him. Just ask that the Lord will bless them with a really good vehicle for very little money.

It's going to be another warm day today but at least we have only a slight breeze instead of the wind we've been having. We're quite tired of the wind. I think our high yesterday was 103 and I'm pretty sure today will top that. It's much hotter, much earlier! We're less than a month away from the Fourth of July. Usually by this time we are enduring scorching heat. Not that 103 isn't hot. It is. But it's a far cry from 114!

This hasn't been much of a blog but it's the best I can do for the day. Since I only blogged twice this week I will try and squeeze in another blog over the weekend but no promises. I think it's now time to go elevate my foot for awhile. It's starting to throb. But at least I've been able to put a little weight on it using the crutches for most of my weight. That's a lot better than I thought it would be today. Actually, it's a lot better in every way than I thought it would be today. It doesn't seem to be as blue as it looked last night either. They just made a TV announcement a little while ago that Tim Russert has died of a heart attack at age 58. That's younger than me. It gets kind of scary when people your own age start dying off. That's a real shocker. I always thought he was a fair-minded journalist. He will be missed and I lift his family up to the Lord to give them the strength they need to get though the days ahead.