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What God Taught Me About Money Topics: Money, Tithing, Giving
"Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:" - 2 Corinthians 9:7-8
About four years ago, my wife, Paula, and I got into very serious debt. In
particular, it was credit card debt. We made a lot of stupid choices and decisions concerning our finances and, subsequently, found ourselves staring at a mountain of bills that we just could not pay. We scrimped and saved and still could not manage to pay our minimum monthly payments. At this point we were $30,000 in credit card debt, with an annual interest rate of approximately 18-19%. Our monthly payments were a staggering $800 a month, with around $550-$600 of that $800 payment going towards various interest charges. Do you realize how bad that is? We made a total payment of $800 and only $200-$250 was actually taken off of our debt. That was every month, month after month after month. We sat down one night and figured out how long it was going to take us to pay off our credit cards by making the minimum monthly payment (which was more than we could
afford each month). It was going to take almost 80 years to pay it off. I'm
not exaggerrating...80 years!
Every penny that we earned was already gone before we even received it. Paula would sit around and write out checks after she received her monthly paycheckand would just cry because we weren't getting anywhere. It was THE most discouraging, depressing time of my entire life. The worst part about it was that we were to blame.
At this point,early in our marriage, we were not giving a tithe to the Lord.
We couldn't pay our bills, so we rationalized that there was no way we could give a tithe. Things got worse and worse.During the time of our financial troubles we were attending a church in a town about 45 minutes away from our home. We searched as church janitors at this church. We made $300 a month cleaning the facility and opening and closing up
for services. Even with the extra money that we made for cleaning the church, we still could not pay our monthly payments. We had to use credit cards to pay electric bills, sometimes house payments and we even had to write out credit card checks to pay the mininum monthly payment of other credit cards!
It was about a year and a half into our marriage that God asked us to march
around Jericho seven times and blow our trumpets. Those weren't His exact instructions, but they were about as absurd to us. God began to lead us to do two things.
First, He really convicted us about our tithing. He made it very clear that things were as they were financially because we had not surrendered our money to Him.
Secondly, almost simultaneously, He lead us to leave the church we were
attending to attend church in our hometown. I asked a very stupid question back then. I don't remember if I did it aloud or in my mind, but the question was asked, "God, are you sure?" Seems kind of stupid to ask the all-knowing God of the universe, "Are you sure?", but I did. You see, what He was instructing us to do just didn't make sense.
We absolutely could not pay our bills as it was, and yet He was telling us to
give a tithe, which meant $250-300 would be deducted, and to leave the church where we were earning $300. That meant we would have $550-600 LESS each month than we had when we already couldn't make ends meet. It just didn't seem logical. In fact, it seemed like it would only make matters worse.
God taught me that two important things.
. If you love me, then you must trust me.
. If you trust me, then you must turn over everything to me, and that includes your money.
It was one of those really hard steps of faith. You know the kind I'm talking
about...everything about what God asks you to do seems impossible, illogical and harmful, and yet, because we really do trust Him, we step out in faith. That's what we did. We said, "God, we love you and trust you. Please take care of us."
Friend, from that very moment on, we never missed a payment. We never went without. We never had a need that went unmet. In fact, God did what was supposed to take 80 years in less than 2 1/2 years. That's right, in less than 2 1/2 years God supernaturally wiped out every single penny of that $30,000 in debt. I say "supernaturally" because I, in all honesty, cannot tell you how we paid it off. God did things that I just cannot explain, because I don't understand them myself. Then, He did what I label miracles. For example: we felt lead to give $25 to an elderly couple, which we did. Two days later we received a check for $120 from the electric company stating they had overcharged us. Things like that seemed to happen almost every day.
Christian, if you don't already know them, God wants to teach you two important things...if you love Him, then you must trust Him; if you trust Him, then you must turn everything over to Him, and that includes your money.
We did and we've never been the same.
"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." - Mal 3:10(KJV)
Have a "Wonderful DAY in Christ,"
Jimmy D. Brown