Giving
A traveller between flights at an airport went to a lounge and bought a bag of doughnuts. She sat down and began reading a newspaper. Gradually, she became aware of a rustling noise from behind her paper. She was flabbergasted to see a neatly dressed man helping himself to her doughnuts. Not wanting to make a scene, she leaned over and took a doughnut herself.
A minute or two passed, and then came more rustling. He was helping himself to another one of her doughnuts, so she grabbed another one. This went on until they were down to the last doughnut, which the man broke in two. He pushed one half across to her, ate the other half, and left. She was still fuming about this sometime later. When her flight was announced, she opened her handbag to get her ticket. To her shock and embarrassment, there she found her unopened bag of doughnuts. Not only had he not been eating her doughnuts, she had been eating his doughnuts! How we treat those doughnuts depends a lot on whose doughnuts we think they are.
Everything that we have comes from God – they are His doughnuts! We are stewards of the money we have. The Biblical pattern is that we give at least 10% back to God – it’s the first fruits given in faith that God is our provider.
If you can, wisdom says give 10%, save 10% (Prov 21:20) and live on the 80%. Giving 10% can be tough if you are on a low income. If you are rich, is the Lord asking you to give more to see the Kingdom of God grow. If you are in debt, a local debt centre can help you gain financial freedom again.
Pray: Ask the Lord what He wants you to give cheerfully 2 Cor 9:7.
Recommended extra reading
Redeeming Money: How God Reveals and Reorients Our Hearts (Paul David Tripp)
