One of the most difficult parts of being a missionary, for me, is asking for financial support. I have disliked it so much that my first plan was to wait until I reached retirement age and support our ministry using my retirement funds. As you can see, that didn't work out so well, and eight plus years later I realize that was the height of arrogance and disobedience. God has led me to be a faith-based missionary not because He needs for me to raise funds, but because I need to raise the funds for our ministry to remind myself, daily, that this is HIS ministry and we are literally and totally dependent on Him for our survival.
It is in this obedience and dependence that I am writing about Giving Tuesday. For me, it is unfortunate that we need to designate one day of the year to remind us that we are responsible for more than our own happiness and survival. This should be part of our DNA as believers, and we have been told by no one other than Jesus Himself that what we do for the least of these we do for Him. The Bible often speaks of the responsibility of those who love God to love their neighbor, concretely and practically.
I am writing about giving not because we need money (though we do) but because, as believers, we need to be givers. Where we invest our money and our time is a good indicator of what is important to our heart. Giving is a concrete expression of our awareness that all we have is a gift from God. No matter that we have worked hard to "earn" it--He has provided our jobs, our skills and our strength to be able to do so. We need to give as much as the needy need to receive.
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| James 1: 27 |
It doesn't matter how much you give, it may not even matter to whom you give, but GIVE. Give as He has given to you. Give as He directs you. Don't be led by emotional appeals which pull on your heart strings, but be led by obedience to His prompting.
Don't be held back by the fear that if you give you will not have enough. This is one of the ways we have been "contaminated by the world" which seeks to block His still small voice.
If He is moving your heart to give--
The foreigner, fatherless and widows are identified specifically as those in need. Widows and orphans were those who, in Jesus' time, were unable to provide for their own needs, and were dependent on others to survive. Even in this day and age there are people such as these. I believe that the disabled, especially in poverty-stricken countries, are definitely included among those about whom the Bible speaks.
It is for this reason that I am inviting you to partner with Reason to Hope this year to care for those who, because of their disabilities and abandonment by their families, are not able to care for themselves. These folks come to us believing we are their hope, and we lead them to find the true hope which comes from Christ alone, even as we provide for their physical, emotional, and psychological needs.
So I am asking you to stop, pray, and listen to God in this moment. Is he stirring your heart to provide for the financial needs of the poor and disabled in Guatemala who are being served by Reason to Hope? If you feel God moving in your heart to partner with our ministry--JUST DO IT!
If you feel God moving you to share your riches with another ministry--JUST DO IT!
Whatever God is telling you--JUST DO IT!
And, after you hear from our Father, and after you step out in obedience to His leading, I'd love to hear what you were led to do. You can copy this image and email it to me.
I promise I will pray His abundant blessings over your donation to whatever ministry you support, and ask Him to bless you more abudantly than you can ask or imagine.
Now, go and JUST DO IT!
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