The Building Campaign

Our church is in the middle of a building campaign.  You know what what means, lots of talk about money and finances.  While I know its not a very popular topic, I don’t mind it too much.  It’s a topic that Beth and I embrace and try to really seek what God is wanting us to do.  But that doesn’t mean it’s easy, or even simple.  The church was asking for 3 year commitments to give over and above your regular offerings.  So Beth and I had discussed it over the period of several weeks, what we felt God leading us to commit to.  I had a number and Beth had a number, and we were not very close to the same number.  So what do we do?  How do we figure out which one of us is not listening to God, and which one is, because I’m assuming God would not give us different numbers.  Just like He would not tell one pastor that their Salvation is eternally secure and another that it’s not.  But let’s not get off topic.  So I basically explained all my reasons to Beth when I decided on my number, and then we both agreed to use her number, which is usually par for the course.

You Can’t Out-give God

Over a few weeks time, the church had people give testimonies of how God has blessed them financially for being faithful.  One man got up and said, “You can’t out-give God.”  I’ve heard that many times before, and my logical brain always asks myself, “REALLY???”  What would happen if I tried to out-give God?  Because “logical” people say that if you give too much, you will be neglecting and harming your family.  What if, instead of giving 10%, somebody gave 50%, or 90%, or even 100%?  I don’t know because I’ve never heard anybody do that.  And I’ve never heard anybody say, “I decided to test God like it says in Malachi, and give 90% of my salary, and I lost everything, including my family, and now I’m a street beggar.”  Do you know of anybody that has taken Malachi 3:10 this seriously?  I’m guessing there are people out there somewhere with this kind of faith, but I don’t know them.  Do you know of any?

Keeping God on Our Leash

I think this philosophy spills over into all aspects of our lives.  Henry Blackaby says in the book “Experiencing God” that we often don’t see miracles today because we never attempt to do anything that only God can do.  Did you catch that?  What’s the last thing you attempted that you knew only God would be able to do?  We attempt things all the time that we think we can accomplish.  Isn’t that how we make most of our decisions in life.  We contemplate whether or not we think we can pull something off.  If we think we can, we go for it.  If not, we pass and look for something else less challenging.  And we don’t give God an opportunity to do something miraculous in our lives.  We keep God on our leash.  And God’s role in our lives is to help us when we run into trouble.  If one of our own assignments goes awry, we call on God to see if He can bail us out.  That’s not the way it’s supposed to work.

What if we got God involved from the beginning?  When we are contemplating a task, and we determine there’s no way I can pull this off, what if we give God a shot at doing it through us?  Some might think we are crazy, battling windmills.  But that just makes it that much more amazing when God performs a miracle in our lives.  And this way, God gets the glory, because we know we could never have done it on our own.  Let’s challenge ourselves to let God off our leash and give God a chance at doing something miraculous in our lives.