The 30 day Money giving challenge. By Edward

The 30 day Money giving challenge. By Edward
Recently at leadership training, we were given an assignment to be giving out money to people on a daily basis, the amount was not specified, but we were told to give and give a report on our giving. They probably want to instill in us the spirit and mindset of giving. And probably give in big ways if possible, as kings do. What they call the generosity of Kings.

As leaders, we need to learn to give on a continuous basis irrespective of the response of the receivers.The Buwenda community i live in is rural, and as is the case with many other rural communities and urban communities too, many people here habour a mindset of only receiving, they expect local politicians, government, Muzungus, rich relatives, evil spirits, NGOs, etc to give them free goodies, which may not be bad per say, but as we receive, we should also give to others. The bible is very clear on this. God does not prosper us for the purpose of raising our standard of living. He prospers us so that we can raise our standard of giving. Giving always results in receiving.

The biggest deterrent to giving is fear, the fear that if I give away too much, I won’t have enough for this or that-What some call the scarcity mindset, yet we are always encouraged to harbor the abundance mindset.

Some years ago, I used to be a big giver to ministries and individuals; I still do give but now with a lot of caution. The more I gave, the more good and hard lessons I learnt. The more I gave, the more ‘needy people’ showed up and the more abuse I faced, so I realized I couldn’t solve everyone’s problem and slowed down. I remember one man who called himself a pastor who came to me with his so-called urgent problem of rent, apparent the landlord was about to throw him out, so he pleaded with me to help him with rent, I didn’t have the money on me, but I reasoned inside that it’s important to borrow and help this pastor, so I quickly borrowed the money from a friend and gave him, little did I know that the rent was inflated. There have been many similar cases of abuse of my generosity, but at least I can now slow down, reflect and act on lessons learnt.

Some Ugandans are also not good at saying thank you, someone calls you ten times asking for money, you finally send them money via Mobile Money, but they cannot even say thank you, you call to inquire if money was received, they say yes but pretend as if they were about to call and say the thank you. Anyways the abuse by some whom we reach out to, shouldn’t deter anyone from continuing to give, but may be just do so with some caution. So I still give to good causes but after careful mental scrutiny and other budgetary considerations. Now that we were given the 30 day money giving assignment and I had to abide by it, I have been giving out money on a daily basis, which has been very easy as I receive several requests for money almost on a daily basis.

Giving to churches, para-church ministries, individuals and others has lots of advantages and teaches us many things. I should however, say that misusing/abusing the Biblical teachings on giving to extract money from followers especially by some unserious pastors shouldn’t be encouraged by anyone.
Luke 6:38 says: “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal [measure]it shall be measured to you again.” When we become givers, we move ourselves into the realm of receivers. It is an opportunity to put God’s biblical principles into action!

If the entire Body of Christ began to operate in accordance with this biblical principle, we would witness the abundance Moses experienced in the Book of Exodus. His people were so willing to give to build the sanctuary that Moses finally had to stop the giving. Exodus 36:6-7 says: “Let neither man nor woman make any more work for the offering of the sanctuary. So the people were restrained from bringing.” “For the stuff they had was sufficient for all the work to make it, and too much.”

We should also note that giving does not necessary result in instantly receiving, when we give, its important to take on an agricultural mentality. The Bible says whatever you have planted will come up.
You see, giving to God is like a farmer planting seed. The day after he plants, the farmer does not run out to his garden and say, “It didn’t work! It didn’t work! My bean seed didn’t come up.”

Today, many people function in a technological mentality. Everything is instant. We have instant downloads, instant coffee, instant banking, etc
But, the principles of biblical economics are based on farming, not technological principles. God is not the great spiritual slot machine in the sky.
You do not put in a hundred shillings and instantly get back a thousand. No, you plant a hundred shillings into God’s work. You let that seed grow, mature, and develop so that “in due season” God will return to you many times what you have planted.
It takes faith and patience to bring these God-given principles to their fullest potential. We must regularly plant our seed. At first our sowing may look futile, but it will later yield fruits.

Our giving is a reflexive response to the grace of God in our lives.It comes out of the transforming work of Christ in us. This grace is the action; our giving is the reaction. We give because He first gave to us.
Blessings- Edward