As you consider your giving to the church next year, please consider how you can grow in your own generosity.
Systematic giving is a helpful idea for everyone. Perhaps it can be to make an increase each year like $1 per day, or $10 per week. Pledging regular generosity helps to keep you giving to a regular schedule, and not fall behind. You can sign up for automatic giving through a credit card for points, or with a debit from your on line account.
Other ideas:
Make an extra gift or two during the year: A story was shared about someone who said, “I’m not sure what the future holds for me, but now I am doing okay, so I will double my giving in the month of April”. Well, what if we decided to double our giving one month or even two months next year?
Grow by a percentage each year: For some, the idea of a tithe is unachievable in a single year, but is something people would like to work towards. By growing giving by a percentage each year, it is achievable over the long-term. If you currently give away 2% of income, perhaps you can reach 3% next year and 4% the year after. This takes discipline, but over the long-term is effective for some.
Grow the income you share with God. Everyone can grow in generosity, even if that means the overall dollars given decreases. If your income decreased, and you had been giving 2% of your income, now with income being less, can you find a way to grow the percentage of giving to 3 or 4%? There are people in our congregation who will need to decrease the total dollars given because of loss of work or other reasons.
You may have your own ideas for growing in generosity. As a church family, as we each grow in our generosity, it will have a tremendous overall impact.
HAVE FAITH! ASSUME SUFFICIENCY NOT SCARCITY
Many fear they will not have enough to live on. This is called The Scarcity Assumption. It is human. It is natural. But, it is not Christian.
Our faith teaches us that God will provide sufficiently for all our needs if we but trust in God’s promises. And this is so even when we give away the largest portion or amount that we have ever given!
So we must have faith that a good and gracious God will continue to provide for us in the future, as God has in the past. And as God has promised to do!
We are to trust God as did Abraham of old and so many others throughout the pages of the Bible. These examples were written for our instruction and for our assurance. We must learn to give in faith with the assumption of sufficiency, not scarcity. God will provide for God cares for us.