Giving is something I’ve wanted to write about for a while, but with it being a touchy subject I’ve avoided it. Even though I’m very passionate about it I have stayed away from it, but something happened this week that was too cool not to share.
A few weeks ago after church, Angela came up to me and told me that God was leading her to give another family some money. We never carry cash on us, but we randomly happened to have some from something we had sold the day before. We weren’t really sure why God wanted us to give the money but decided to trust Him and just do it.
Fast forward to this week. I helped out a friend with something and they insisted on getting me a gift card for my time. To try to make it clear there was no need to pay me, I refused to tell them which restaurant I would prefer. The next morning when I saw them, they decided to just write a check because they refused to take no for an answer.
On my way home, I was telling Angela what happened and her response was, “That’s the exact amount we gave the family a few weeks ago.” I had not even realized it. The truth is that Angela and I have seen this over and over again. One post can’t contain all the ways we have seen God return what we have given, but I’ll give you a few more examples.
We have given away a bed and we later were given a bed.
We have given away a car and someone has given us a car.
I know it sounds crazy but there is a lot of fun in giving. One of the verses I hold on to when God tells me to give is Malachi 3:10. It says, “Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.”
It isn’t as hard to give when you imagine God opening up heaven and pouring it back down on you. At this point in my life, I wonder how God is going to top what He has already done. The cool part is that He continually outdoes himself. The truth is that Angela and I don’t give because we want something back (it was years before we were blessed with a car), but we know that God will bless us somehow because that’s what His word tells us.
I know it’s not popular to talk about, but giving is a lot of fun. Sometimes the blessing is seeing the return on your gift. Sometimes it is just seeing the impact it makes. Either way it’s a blessing. If you haven’t given it a shot, you should.
until next time…