The Gift of Giving Part 2

Luke 6:38
“Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

Have you ever had a hard time financially and wondered how you were going to make it through? I have and I want to share with you my story today.

We had moved away to Florida and brought with us a ton of debt. I received a pay increase with my promotion and move of more than 25% and Stacey and I were still living paycheck to paycheck. It was stressful and very hard on our marriage. We were attending church and I was just going through the motions to go to church. I had Stacey doing the finances and I wanted to go out to eat and she said “we don’t have the money.” So I started looking over the finances, you know cause I am the man, what do you mean we don’t have the money. The first thing I said was, well we can cut this 10% out going to the church first of all. Stacey was adamant about not doing that and thank God she was.

When I finally became broken in my finances and said, “Ok God, I am not in control you are.” I truly gave our tithe for the first time from my heart. Well Stacey was going on a trip to Texas and we did not have the money for me to go, but after I gave that Sunday we got a check in the mail from some escrow money from our house being sold in Oklahoma for triple the amount I tithed. I bought a plane ticket one way so I could at least drive there with Stacey, because I could not take off work and flew home. The rest is history. It was on that drive to Texas when I gave my life to Christ.

I have never stopped giving and tithing since that day and God has delivered me from an upwards of 35k in consumer and credit card debt and allowed me to take over a 60% pay-cut to work in the full time ministry and fulfill my true calling in life. Our finances are tight but God continues to meet our needs every day and we have learned from our past how to manage our money better.