When my husband and I were first married, we didn’t have much. Our savings account was made up of monetary wedding gifts and our monthly income equaled, almost precisely our month expenses. Anything involving money felt like a big risk.
Recently my husband lost his job. While he’s had several prospects, nothing has panned out yet, so we are still without a regular full-time income. Financially, things feel very uncertain. At times like this, it can be difficult to give generously.
Whether it’s money or material things, it can feel difficult to let go of something for fear that you might need it later. But part of cultivating a heart of gratitude is adjusting our perspective to one of abundance rather than scarcity. If we continue to embrace a scarcity mentality, we will hold tightly to all that we have, for fear that we won’t have enough.
There have been times when I felt called to give money or material goods that I didn’t know how to replace. I’ve never given away the grocery money, but I have given when I felt God was telling me to, even when there was a serious financial crunch on the horizon.
A few years ago, we inherited some money from my grandmother. One of the things we had always wanted to do was to give a sizable donation to Cure International, but we had never had the funds to do so before. So we set aside the money and happily made the donation.
A year later we were faced with some serious and unexpected expenses during the purchase of our house. Not having that money we had given away could have become a barrier to the sale going through. Fortunately, God provided another way.
The specific details don’t matter, what is important is that we need to be generous without fear of what will happen in the future. It comes down to whether we believe that God is really our provider or not. My husband and I have second guessed many of our decisions in the last year, wondering if we could have prevented where we are right now. But the truth is, no we couldn’t. We followed God’s leading and the advice of those we trust most and yet we are still in a time of difficulty.
I refuse to withdraw the hand of generosity from the world around me out of fear of the future. God has provided in the past and I believe he will continue to do so in the future. Click To TweetI need to be continually willing to be a tool for provision to others at his urging
Next – Recognizing Our Assets: How Believing the Best About Ourselves Can Make Us More Generous
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I used to hold back giving to charity because I didn’t think I could afford it. But what I’ve learned is giving is good. It takes the focus away from me and focuses on charities etc that are more important than what I want personally.
This is so true! We’ve always tried to have a portion of our budget set aside to give away, regardless of how little we have. The hard part is learning to increase it as our income increases and build new habits of giving more.