God's Financial Playbook PT.5 - Giving Part 3
Jason Davis KCP, KMP, CSM
Senior Scrum Master. Lean. Kanban. Agile. Leadership Trainer. DISC Trainer. Author. Speaker. Coach. Podcaster. Helping mission-driven people prioritize their faith in the marketplace.
"EACH ONE MUST GIVE AS HE HAS DECIDED IN HIS HEART, NOT RELUCTANTLY OR UNDER COMPULSION, FOR GOD LOVES A CHEERFUL GIVER." - 2 CORINTHIANS 9:7
The Lord worked on my heart all the way up until getting married in the area of generosity. He had to cleanse me from all the fear and garbage I had in my life concerning money and my family background. That's a story for another day. Today, I better understand why the Lord took me down this path. He was molding me for one of His daughters. My wife is the most generous person that I know. She truly gives freely, both of herself and with money. He couldn't have a broken person be the spiritual head of a generous person. God used my wife to help move me further down the journey to a generous heart. I now give off of gross rather than net pay.
According to NonProfit Source, the following trends were captured in the 2019 Church Giving Report: people who tithe only make up around 10-25% of any congregation, on average Christians give 2.5% of their income to churches, and only 1% of $75,000+ earning families give 10% of their income. With those kinds of statistics, I'm not sure why there's so much debate about gross vs. net and what amount to give because 1) most church attendees don't tithe, and 2) most church attendees give a much smaller percentage of their income.
Proverbs 3:9-10 says to "Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine."
I'm not a theologian or scholar on the subject of giving, but I try to look at the principle of the matter. Keep God first and central when it comes to giving. Because of who He is and what He's done for me, I've "purposed in my heart" to prioritize Him financially over everything else. Secondly, He's the fire that burns within me to carry a spirit of thanksgiving.
This has been an excerpt from my book, "Fortify: Being Rooted in God's Plan For Work And Business." Find the book HERE and the companion workbook/journal HERE.
领英推荐
For more about integrating faith and business, listen to The Fortified Life Podcast HERE. Live Wednesday nights @ 8:30pm ET and On Demand (Apple, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Audible, Spreaker).
Join us Tuesday nights @ 8:00pm ET on Zoom for Vitamin F (Fortify) as we engage with our online discipleship tool Operation Timothy and share with you golden nuggets of what it takes to obey the Great Commission. Click HERE to join.