I often marvel at Christian leaders who give all their money away and see God’s provision in miraculous ways. I admire their great faith and mature walk with God, and when I’m struggling with money, I often think that the answer is to give away everything and live by faith.
But does living by faith really mean giving away all your money?
For me there are two elements to living by faith. The first is one that I quite like – being generous. We can do this in lots of ways – time, hospitality, finances. It’s simply giving away things that we’ve already received. And I can genuinely say I’ve learnt that being generous can be really fun!
On the flip side, I don’t really like the idea of receiving from others. A while ago I was in the supermarket and I got to the check out, my items had gone through the till, only to find that I’d left my purse back in my office. I left the shop, without my groceries, embarrassed and shaken. A colleague had been in the supermarket the same time as me and when she got back to the office she immediately said, “Why didn’t you just come and find me? I would’ve paid for it!” I felt really uncomfortable – but surely this was a legitimate way for God to provide?
Recently a friend challenged me about why as Christians we want to learn to ‘live by faith’ and why we sometimes aspire to give so much away so that we can’t live within our means. Asking that question caused me to have a really good think about why I’m trying to learn to put my faith in God, particularly with my finances. And as I’ve thought about it, I realised that living by faith is all about living in community.
In the Bible God doesn’t call all of us to give all our money away. But He does call us to put our trust in Him. When I look at the church in Acts, they shared everything – this defined them as community. Subsequently the rich had a cost to them, in giving away all that they had, and letting go of control over their possessions. The poor had a cost in humbly receiving from others and trusting that provision doesn’t carry expectations or conditions. As a community they shared everything together because they recognised that it all came from God and was to His glory. We have to be prepared to bless others with what we have, but also to receive and share in others’ blessing when we don’t have very much.
- How are you sharing your finances with the people you live life with?
- Where do you need to trust God for His provision, both through giving and receiving?
- And how are you celebrating with others all the goodness that He gives to us?
