Debt & Giving - Part 2

So I would like to outline to you our plan for paying off this debt, God willing, by the end of the year. Let me preface our plan by saying that it might not make sense, but that is exactly the point. We feel like we will be able to be debt-free by the end of this year by trusting God to meet our needs, and we can outwardly express this trust by giving more of our money away to others. It does not make sense to expect to get out of debt by giving away your money, but it does if you have a promise from God that He will provide for you. It does make sense if you believe it is more blessed to give than to receive! We feel that we need to give more and that God will be faithful in blessing our giving. We intend to increase our tithe offering to 20%. We are currently at 10% and feel led to give the first 20% of everything we make back to God. We also intent to give a larger percentage of our income than we did in 2010. I believe we gave around 14% of our income away through tithes and offerings last year. This year we intend to increase the percentage we give, and we hope to continue to increase that percentage every year until we get to the place where we are giving away 90% and living on the 10%. Is God not capable of doing this?

I do hope that by giving you the details on our giving you will not see this as bragging or boasting about how much money we give. I feel that as Christians we are very hush-hush about how much we give and we try not to let anyone know how much we give because that would be selfish giving or drawing attention to ourselves. I feel that what we ought to do as Christians IS boast about how much we are able to give! It’s not like the money is ours to begin with. So are we not boasting about what God has allowed us to give, is it not bragging about what God is doing in our lives and in the lives of others through the money He gave us to give away? We ought to challenge one another to give more! We ought to be an encouragement to others through our giving. We ought to see others giving as bragging on what God is doing through His followers. I see it as an act of worship. If God has given you money, or time, or abilities; should we not use those to further His kingdom and should we not boast about what He is able to do with our resources and through us? Yes, I think we should. So I am not boasting about how great we are because we give blank amount, but I am bragging on God for meeting our needs, providing for us always, and keeping His promise to bless our giving.

So back to our plan – In 2011 we are going to increase our tithe offering to 20% of our income, increase the percentage of our total income that we give, cut our budget as much as we possibly can, and put every extra dollar God’s sees fit to bless us with towards my student loan debt. We will give back to God FIRST and THEN adjust our budget accordingly. So by giving away more of our money, we feel that God will bless our giving and will meet our needs and more, to the point where we will be able to pay off this debt by the end of 2011. We want to make this journey about what God is capable of accomplishing and not about what we could accomplish under our own means. To give you an idea of what we are up against in this debt removal process I will let you in on our financial situation – I make about $18,500 annually at my job. The business we own grosses about $36,000 annually, but ended up netting only about $1000 in 2010. Ronnie, through substitute teaching and horse training brings in an additional $2000 a year. So I think we are safe in saying we do not make a ton of money, but we have never gone without, and God has always provided! I give you our income to show you that us paying off my student loan debt in one year was hard enough before (maybe impossible), but with our increased giving we will be trusting God more than ever to meet our needs. Just going by the numbers it would seem impossible to pay off a loan in one year that is nearly two times our annual income, but when we come to that place where we cannot do it on own our and have to rely completely on Him, we allow God to work miracles.

Our hope is that we will give away our money, God will bless us, the loan will get paid off, and people will see how good God is to do the impossible. I do not know for a fact that we will pay off the student loan debt this year, but I do know that we will be faithful in our giving, and God will always be faithful in loving us. So whether God sees fit to allow us to pay this loan off or not, we will be thankful for the multitude of blessings we are constantly receiving and will continue to praise Him for choosing us. I hope that as you watch us pay off this debt and give more you will be encouraged to give more yourself. I would hope that as you watch God be faithful to those that are obedient to His commands, that your faith would be strengthened and you would come to trust God more and give more of yourself to Him. Lastly, my prayer is that your giving would be an act of affection and devotion to a God that is worthy and deserving of more than we can ever give.