Money Matters…

People in this world are struggling; worrying and consumed with fear concerning the future. Their faith, trust, & confidence are in the things of the world and the world is shaking. They have lots of questions & no answers. They are in absolute darkness—they truly do not know or understand, are unable to comprehend just what difference God could really make in their lives. In every aspect, not just spiritually & emotionally, but mentally, physically, & financially.

God’s principles are so often the complete opposite of ours. He says, ”For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9).

God’s principles don’t often come naturally for us. It is usually with some effort on our parts that we come around to His way of thinking. We must choose to forsake our ways and take on His. The principle of tithing is only one example. There are many more such as: Love your enemy… Bless them that curse you… Pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you… Don’t render evil for evil, or railing for railing but contrariwise a blessing… Praise in the midst of trials… Don’t worry about tomorrow… In EVERYTHING give thanks!! Give so that ou may receive… This is some kind of strange thinking, huh? Blessed is he that mourns… Humble yourselves so that you may be exalted… Alright, this just plain makes no sense, does it??

My husband and I have faithfully tithed since we got saved in 1992. We haven’t faithfully given above that 10% but we have been steady tithers. We have seen the Lord do so many things for us, move so many obstacles, change so many situations; I mean bless us beyond what we could ever ask or even think. He’s given us favor time and time again, given us wisdom in situations, led, guided and directed our footsteps. What would happen when we began to give above that 10%? Truly amazing things!

So, tithe. Be faithful to God’s work, be obedient to God’s command:

”Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts. And all nations shall call your blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the Lord of hosts” (Malachi 3:10-12).

And it came to pass, that, as the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he stood by the lake Gennesaret,
And saw two ships standing by the lake: but the fisherman were gone out of them, and were washing their nets.
And he entered into one of the ships, which was Simon’s, and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land. And he sat down, and taught the people out of the ship.
Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught.
And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at they word I will let down the net.
And when they had this done, they inclosed a great multitude of fishes: and their net brake.
And they beckoned unto their partners, which were in the other ship, that they would come and help them. And they came, and filled both the ships, so that they began to sink.
When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.
For he was astonished, and all that were with him, at the draught of the fishes which they had taken.
And so was also James, and John, the sons of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon. And Jesus said unto Simon, Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men.
—St. Luke 5:1-10

We were right in the middle of a building program at our church when a guest speaker came and preached to us on a Wednesday night, his text the above scriptures. At a time of recession, when gas is astronomically high and rising, food prices seem to be increasing weekly, the cost of just living is rising, we are living paycheck to paycheck and dipping into our savings to just pay the bills at the end of the month; the government decides to send us some money and the pastor suggests that we all give it to build this church!? We ARE already faithful tithers… This is where I was at when these scriptures were read that night. The speaker didn’t really start right off with finances, it was all about trusting Jesus, but somehow it finagled around to trusting Him with our finances. I later found out that our pastor did not share our church’s pressing building fund needs with this man, or the two speakers before who also spoke on the subject. Suddenly the Spirit of the Lord began dealing with me and I was presented with a dilemma… What is all you have worth to you? All your savings… all your means. Would you write a check for every penny of it, if you possibly could, in exchange for even one of your childrens’ souls? I can say to you that you can’t buy souls and you can’t, it’s not that… But peradventure… Would I give it all IF it could work that way? What about a sick person, a person who’s done everything from the medical standpoint and who’s prognosis is grim, who is going to die and/or is suffering and in pain daily; Would they give all they had to be well? I dare say they would.

The speaker told of a day he came to the pulpit and spoke to the congregation of pressing financial needs and a lady got up and left. An usher followed her, asking her what was wrong. She said incredulously, “I don’t sleep at night, I am constantly bombarded with problems and torments, I have thus and thus and thus wrong in my life and I need help, and all he wants to do is ask us for money?!” Have I ever had this mentality? Have you?

After Peter had fished all night, toiled the bible says, doing all that fishermen do, he had caught NOTHING. He was struggling, surely bills were due, this was his bread and butter! When he was discouraged and disheartened & full of despair… depressed (all D..evil words) Jesus came and asked, Can I use your boat? Jesus didn’t come with miracles and great words of encouragement, he didn’t offer to help or even seem to notice that Peter was struggling, first he asked of him. Then even after that He besought Peter to push him out into the water! Peter could have been aghast, as the woman who left the service was. Here I am, full of problems and you’re asking MORE of me??? But he didn’t.

After Jesus had finished speaking, he told Peter to launch out into the deep and let down his net for a draught. Peter obeyed, possibly with slumped over shoulders and skepticism, but he obeyed. And the multitude of the catch almost sank not only his boat but his friends as well!!

Giving of yourself, you time, your confidence, your “means”, your finances; is an act of faith. Without faith it is impossible to please God. When we are afraid to give in an area—of ourselves, our time, our resources, our finances; we are showing a lack of confidence in God. It is merely outward evidence of our inner distrust. I realized this night that though I really thought I trusted God completely, I really did not. What is a few hundred dollars or even a few thousand to God? Does He NEED our money… really? Heavens no. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills. Leaders are raised up and they are casted down, nations rise and fall at His command! He created EVERY SINGLE thing we see and know, including ourselves. The sun would stop shining and even time itself stand still… the rain would not come down or not cease to come down and even the animals find their voice at God’s command! Realize who He IS! Deal with your distrust of Him! Why do I not trust God completely with our finances and resources? Abraham believed God and that belief was counted to him as righteousness. He said, I will offer to God my son, my promised son, my most prized possession. I waited for 20 years for this beloved son, but the Lord gave him to me and the Lord can even raise him up from the dead again. God will provide a sacrifice. If ever someone would have wanted to and could have justified before anyone withholding such a sacrifice, it was Abraham. He could have run out of there and said God was a hard taskmaster. He could have allowed his flesh to rise up easily to reason and make excuses but he didn’t do that. He TRUSTED, he truly BELIEVED God. The “Believe” that has action attached to it.

The next day the scriptures had a different meaning to me… a deeper meaning. “I will trust and not be afraid”... Do I really trust Him? If He asked me to empty out every dollar from savings when our credit is extended to the max and there isn’t any left after paying bills… Can I do that and say with confidence as Abraham did, God will provide? As Job said.. though he slay me, yet will I trust Him. We should be to that place in our confidence that we can obey without hindrance. Uninhibited by fear and anxiety. When everything we see with our eyes and trust in with our future fails… when the economy is plunging downward and our equity has dissolved… when all the prices go up and our paycheck isn’t. When our savings is gone and the list of needs seems to be growing longer…. Will our confidence waver? Will we discover that our “believe” isn’t really up to par like we thought it was? Will we find ourselves clutching tightly to our treasure? Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Lord help us to lay up for ourselves treasure in heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt and where thieves cannot break through and steal. Sow your seed in God’s kingdom that you may reap a harvest!!! (Look at the last verse again.)

Back to the story I began, we decided to give the entire check that we would be getting from the government to the building of the church. We hadn’t received it yet, and so we hadn’t given it yet, but we settled it in our hearts to give it and had peace about it. We had promised a certain amount of it before but now we decided to give every penny. I had managed to get past that doubt that we’d have enough, that we’d make it, and made the decision to really, REALLY trust in my Lord. The following Sunday service, our almost 13 year old son was filled with the Holy Ghost! We gathered up front to pray for a man who was very sick, one of our sons and our daughter joined us, before long he was praying with tears streaming down his face, hands lifted in surrender. This was the most precious Mother’s Day gift I could ever hope for. We didn’t decide to give that money thinking about what we would get in return, but we were putting our belief into action by obeying what God entreated of us through the shepherd of our flock. God rewarded that little bit of faith with something far more precious than money could buy. You can never out give God! Muster up every little ounce of faith you can, trust Him even when it hurts, settle it in your mind once and for all. TRUST HIM! Lord Jesus, help us to seek first your kingdom.. then watch how you open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing we can hardly contain!

You think that’s all? That’s not all! About two weeks later my husbands’ boss decided he wanted to do something for us… he asked my husband what he’d like better… a bonus, a weekly increase… what? My husband shared with him that we are struggling with some debt and that probably the weekly increase would be most beneficial that we can pay more on our debt. He said, you have debt? I’ll help you with that; he then gave us $3000. toward that debt!!! Now, what is that scripture again? EXCEEDINGLY, ABUNDANTLY ABOVE ALL WE COULD ASK OR EVEN THINK!! Taste and see that the Lord is good! He is worthy of our trust… for He IS truly wonderful!

And still, that is not all!! My husband was blessed with about $2100 cash that was completely unexpected a couple days later. So, get this now… we gave the $2,400 that the government gave to us and God filled our son with the Holy Ghost AND blessed us with $5,100. within a two week period!!! That is almost 50% more than what we gave! I was amazed to actually see it happen but I am not surprised at the same time because our Lord is FAITHFUL and HE IS GOOD.

So if the Lord puts something on your heart to give, or if someone asks of you and you feel the prodding of the Lord… just step out in faith and see what will happen! Hallelujah to our wonderful, wonderful Lord!