Legacy | God Gives First
I struggle to trust God's intentions toward me. There. I said it; now we can all be honest, even if we do not display it aloud. My lack of trust comes out in all kinds of ways, but the place I find it showing up most often is, you guessed it, how I manage the resources God has entrusted to me.
Saying that aloud feels strange because Breanna and I have typically been generous, even when we made $500/mo… combined.
But when I wrote my first book and received the signing bonus, I suddenly felt tightness in my chest and a lump in my gut about tithing off of it. It was a feeling I had never experienced before, and when I dug into it, I realised that what was underneath it was a sudden sense that I might never see this type of money again, and I had to hold tight to decide what was best for my family and me.
In other words, would we lack something if I gave a tithe off that amount of money?
Would God still take care of us?
Now, I know I am not alone in that boat. God's vision for managing the resources He has entrusted to us has everything to do with what we believe about Him and His intentions toward us.
And the picture being painted about the people who say they follow the way of Jesus' trust in His intentions is relatively bleak. Please lean in and trust my heart; what I am about to tell you regarding where things stand with Jesus' people and their management of resources is NOT an attempt to guilt you. I want to inform you and invite you to face this reality with me as we seek a better way.
Your bringing your first and best back to God, in the form of giving, is about you and God. Besides, the Scriptures say, "do not give out of compulsion." [2 Corinthians 9:6-7]
But being informed is another matter and the information—as I said—is pretty shocking. And this is just a smidge of pages and pages of research.
Only 3% - 5% of U.S. Christians tithe (Give 10%), and 75% - 80% only give 2% of their income.
Only about %15 of any congregation gives anything at all.
Today Christians are giving 2.5% of their income; during the Great Depression, it was 3.3%.
When surveyed, 17% of Americans stated that they regularly tithe.
For families making $75k+, 1% of them gave at least 10% in tithing.
1.5 million people tithe out of the 247 million U.S. citizens identifying as Christians (Sharefaith).
8/10 people who give to churches have zero credit card debt. (Side note, debt is a serious issue. One-third of U.S. Christians are hamstrung by debt, which is why next year we are taking our entire church through a debt elimination and relief program)
People making $20,000 a year are eight times more likely to give than someone making an annual income of $75,000. (So… it seems it is not about how much we make, yes?)
If every Christian tithed 10%, faith organisations would have an extra $139 billion yearly (Health Research Funding).
$25 billion could relieve global hunger and eliminate deaths from preventable diseases within five years
$15 billion could solve the world's water and sanitation issues—specifically in places where a majority of people live on less than $1 a day
$12 billion could end illiteracy
$1 billion could fully fund all overseas mission work
$100–$110 billion would be left over for additional ministry expansion
I have no desire to guilt any of us; it is not my way. But… can we sit in this data for a minute and process its implications together?
Those who make less money are eight times more likely to give than those who make more; why?
245.5 million Christians do not even tithe, though it is a basic tenet of our faith; why?
We have so much untapped potential to heal the world literally, but we cannot do it; why?
I believe there are many answers to those questions, reasonable answers. But I think the primary answer and our most significant hurdle is this—
We do not grasp God's generosity or fully trust His intentions toward us.
You. Me. Everyone. We do not trust Him.
If you are not a follower of the way of Jesus, please know I am directing that statement to those who say they are.
We who say we are followers of the way of Jesus, we say we want to change the world… we say we want to see the Kingdom, but it all starts with our view of God, His intentions toward us, and what we do in response.
In my case, God is the one who gave me the ability to string words together. God is the one who gave me access and the opportunity to meet people who would want to publish those words in a book. God is the one who opened the doors for me to be able to promote the book so it would sell.
And yet, when it was time to return to God a portion of all He had entrusted to me—I hesitated. Why? Again, I did not grasp God's generosity or fully trust His intentions toward me.
Yet the story we have of how God operates is one rooted in generosity, intentionality and care. Not only is it rooted in generosity, but also His initiating, His going first, His giving first.
God gives first.
We see this all over the Scriptures, but particularly in Genesis 3:21. John 3:16-17, and Revelation 21:1-5. What we see through those three profound moments past and coming is this:
God initiates!
God gives His first and best!
God completes!
God is so generous!
God gave humanity the world—not because He lacked anything in Himself, but because He loved!
God gave humanity His Son—not because we deserved such a wondrous, unique gift, but because He determined it the best way for us to be with Him!
God will restore the world to what He intended it to be—not out of some self-glory alone, but because He longs to be with us in the way we were meant to be with Him!
God initiates. God covers. God sacrifices. God gives generously. God gives first—and you are a recipient of God's unending generosity.
The breath in your lungs. The life in your body. All you are is a gift from Him, even if you have yet to put your hope in Him. We who say we have hope in Jesus should be all the more aware of God's abundant generosity toward us and that He always goes first. God gives first.
He gives His first and His best.
From beginning to end, God gives graciously, He always initiates generosity, and when we can see it, no longer out of tune or out of touch concerning the many ways He has been generous, and the absolute fact that He lacks nothing and gives everything, everything in our world changes. Nothing can remain the same.