At Marathon, we’ve always had this struggle – we’ve always had more people than we’ve had money (and that seems to be the case in most churches).
Getting people to understand WHY you give is a difficult thing. I was raised that way. My Mom and Dad taught me about giving, and about God and His money. One of the reasons for giving is to show that we recognize God, and that we recognize that everything that we have comes from him. Conveying that to an audience of thousands is very difficult, so we have to live on what we can get.
Right now we’re trying to teach Faith how to count, and about money – and right now, for her, all money comes from Mom and Dad – but we’re in the process of trying to teach her that the money really comes from God. She’s 5 years old, and she already keeps a list of things that she wants, and I don’t mind getting her some of those things, but the very best thing is when she climbs up into my lap and says “Daddy, thank you. I love you.” That’s when I want to give her the world.
That’s the way it is with God. When we give to Him, we climb into his lap and say “Daddy, thank you. I love you.” And He just can’t wait to give us the world!
