I’ve learned something about myself. I tend to stay away from talking about giving in my writing. Maybe I think my readers don’t want to hear about giving in this forum. Maybe I don’t believe anyone will read the blog on that day. Who knows? It just doesn’t seem to be something God has placed on my heart to write about.

Until now.

We are in a short generosity message series where I attend church. Yes, we talked about the money part, but we were also reminded that giving is a spiritual issue.

If you read through 2 Corinthians 8, you’ll find the account of the Church at Corinth and their desire to give to the Church in Jerusalem. Jerusalem had been plagued with a drought and had caused financial hardship. The Corinthian believers were eager to start the collection, but for some reason had fallen behind (2 Corinthians 8:10). Take a look at Paul’s analysis of this reason.

“But just as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in your love for us—see that you also excel in this grace of giving.” (2 Corinthians 8:7 – NIV)

This group of believers had come to maturity in all other areas of spiritual growth. Their faith was exceptional. They spoke the words of Christ. Their knowledge of biblical truth was above the bar. Their love for others was great. But they lacked spiritual maturity in their giving.

I understand this. To be honest, I think this verse could have been written about me in years past. But what I’ve come to realize is that when one area of spiritual life is lacking maturity, it hinders growth in other areas.

Maybe you feel like I did in the past. Your faith and trust in God is stagnated. Your desire to know more of God’s Word is diminished. Your love for others is just so-so. Maybe you go days without even speaking God’s Name. And you are not even thinking about giving regularly to your local church.

If this sounds like you, maybe it’s time for you to shake up your life a bit.

Our church is also doing a 90-day giving challenge. The idea is to commit to trust God with our finances. To commit to giving 10% of our income or to raise our current giving by a certain percentage. At the end of the 90 days, if we have not been blessed in some way (not necessarily financially), we will get our money back.

Malachi 3:10 (NIV) says, “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this, says the Lord Almighty, and see if I will not throw open the flood gates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.”

I can’t wait to see what God is going to do with our folks. But more importantly, I can’t wait to see what God is going to with me! Where is God going to take me? What is God going to do through me? Who will God point out that needs to hear about Him? I can already feel the excitement building within me.

Now I’m not telling you all of this because I’m the assistant to the lead pastor at our church. I’m sharing this message with you because God has placed it on my heart. This verse from 2 Corinthians touched my heart. I pray that it just might touch yours as well.

Are you up to the challenge?

Grace and peace be yours in abundance,

Donna