Discover Jesus Moment #8

During a church service several weeks ago, the person praying before receiving the offering said something to this effect, "We now have an opportunity to give a portion of our money to God. We know he can be trusted to use it well."

WHAT?

MY MONEY? I don't think so. It is not my money! All I have is his. It's God's money, not mine.

It's not about God being trusted to use the offerings well. It's about God trusting me with what he has given me. Am I trustworthy? Will I faithfully give the tithe back to him? He trusts I will. Will I give above and beyond the tithe when the opportunity arises? He trusts I will. Will I prayerfully be a good steward of the resources he has blessed me with? He trusts I will. Will I? That is the question.

Bear with me a few moments here with this Discover Jesus Moment. Before I logged on this morning, I was praying and asking God to show me what to write about. I seldom know what it will be until I start writing. Anyway, the situation described above came to mind. After I finished typing the above paragraph I sat here wondering where to go next with this. Aha. !!!Discover Jesus Moment #8!!!

My comments about stewardship, giving, tithing, or whatever else you want to call it have not always been what they are now. I went through a time when I thought that maybe we would be able to tithe or even give more if and when we had more to give. Or, when the kids got a little bigger maybe we could give more. 10% was way too generous in my eyes back then. I thought 5% was more than enough. In my husbands eyes, if the Bible said to return the tithe to the Lord, that is what you did. So we did.

I am so thankful for that time in our lives. We learned that God provided generously for us in ways we were not even aware until years later. Here is just one example. We have had only three washing machines and dryers in 40+ years of marriage. None of them ever had mechanical problems. That was truly a blessing. We did not have money sitting around with which to buy new appliances. We never had to.  I firmly believe that was God blessing our faithfulness with his money.

Our kids saw their dad write out a check every Sunday morning before church. They saw there was more than one zero following the number. Whoa. They loved putting it into the offering plate as it went down the pew. I am blessed today as I see each of them walking out their Christian walk as generous stewards. The example their dad set, even though I cringed at times, taught them a great lesson.

At this point in my life, giving back to the Lord is a very easy thing to do. Giving above and beyond is no longer difficult for me. That is only because of the Spirit's work in my life. It was not through a big epiphany experience. It was not through guilt inducing sermons. It was through the slow, steady building up of my faith which increased my desire to serve. Jesus changed my heart. I hadn't even realize to what extent that had taken place until after I started thinking about what I had just written on stewardship.

 Yep, he is continually changing me. That is a good thing. Thank you, Jesus, for letting me have these few moments to discover more of your work in my life.

Praying for more discovery moments,
Jan