Exploring the freedom of heart-led giving—moving beyond fear, formulas, and obligation into generosity rooted in relationship with God.

The Widow’s Mite

I was reading the story of the widow’s offering and found myself feeling a little uncomfortable.

You probably know the story.

Jesus is sitting across from the temple treasury watching people put in their offerings. Many wealthy people give large amounts, and then a poor widow comes along and puts in two small coins.

Jesus calls His disciples over and tells them that she has given more than everyone else. They gave out of their abundance, but she gave out of her poverty—everything she had to live on.

It’s a beautiful story.

Unless you’re struggling financially.

Then, if you’re anything like me, it can stir up all kinds of questions.

Am I giving enough?

Should I be sacrificing more?

If she gave out of her poverty, what does that say about me?

*Remember, questions aren’t bad. They invite us to connect with our hearts, check out our root system, and have a deeper conversation with God. Feelings are attached to needs, and God wants to meet those needs. Check out my post, From Reaction to Connection for more on this topic.

A Tight Season, Financially

We have been in a particularly tight financial season. There are weeks when the money comes in and the automatic bills take such a large portion of it that I am immediately trying to figure out how to stretch what’s left until more comes in.

So when I read about a woman giving out of her poverty, I could feel that old familiar tinge of condemnation.

Maybe you could give more.

And then it gets very practical.

Did you really need to spend that much on groceries? You could eat oatmeal. You could eat more beans and rice. You could sacrifice a little more and have something left to give.

I know that voice.

Because money and giving have been part of my journey with God for a very long time.

Put the Gun Down

When I wrote Water Walkers, I was learning so much about money with God—about seeds and planting, giving and receiving, and especially about the difference between old-covenant and new-covenant giving.

Shout-out to Wealth with God and James Baker for the deposit made into our lives in that season.

For years, we faithfully gave ten percent right off the top.

We were pastors. That’s what we did.

But looking back, I realize that sometimes it required very little of my heart. The money came in. The tithe went out. It was almost like paying a bill.

And underneath it all was something I eventually had to confront: a subtle sense of give—or else.

Pay your tithe or you’re robbing God.

Pay your tithe or the devourer isn’t rebuked.

Pay your tithe or somehow you have stepped outside of God’s protection and provision.

I used to describe it as having a gun to your head.

Writing Water Walkers and taking the Wealth with God course were where I began learning how to put the gun down.

But sitting with this widow all these years later, I realized there was still more for me to discover.

Because once the gun is gone, there is a really interesting question left:

If I don’t give because I have to, what makes me want to give?

I think Dancing on the Waves, the book I am currently writing,  is where I am learning the answer.

Love does.

Not Under Compulsion

Paul writes:

“Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”

—2 Corinthians 9:7

I have read that verse countless times, but I am hearing something different in it now.

As he has decided in his heart.

Not according to a formula.

Not because fear is standing behind you.

Not because you need to secure God’s blessing or protection.

Not under compulsion.

Giving in the new covenant is profoundly relational.

And I’m discovering that removing compulsion doesn’t make me less generous. If anything, it reveals something much more beautiful.

My heart actually wants to give.

When God puts someone on my heart and I have the ability to respond, I love it. I get excited about giving because I know the money is His anyway. There is such joy in getting to participate in what He is doing in someone else’s life.

The difficulty in this season hasn’t been that I don’t want to give.

It’s that sometimes my heart wants to give and there simply isn’t money in my hand to do it.

And I have had to learn that those are not the same thing.

According to What You Have

There is another verse in 2 Corinthians that I don’t think I paid nearly enough attention to before:

“For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have.”

—2 Corinthians 8:12

I keep coming back to those words.

According to what you have. Not according to what you don’t have.

There is a difference between sacrificial giving and condemnation.

There may absolutely be moments when God asks me to give something that costs me. Love is often sacrificial.

But sacrifice that flows from relationship feels very different from an internal prosecutor examining every grocery bag and asking whether I could have deprived myself a little more.

Did you really need that?

Couldn’t you have bought something cheaper?

Couldn’t your family eat less so you would have more to give?

If I follow that thinking far enough, there is almost nothing I could ever enjoy without feeling guilty about someone who has less.

And I don’t believe that is the heart of my Father.

Scripture tells us that God “richly provides us with everything to enjoy” (1 Timothy 6:17).

And remarkably, the very next verse tells us to be generous and ready to share.

Those things aren’t opposed to one another.

I can enjoy what God provides and be generous.

I can care for my family and have an open hand.

I can steward what is in front of me and respond when He invites me to give.

Stewardship Is Not the Enemy of Generosity

This has been important for me to understand in a season when there isn’t always enough money to neatly divide into categories.

Feeding my family is stewardship.

Paying our bills is stewardship.

Setting aside money for taxes is stewardship.

Getting out of debt is stewardship.

And giving is stewardship too.

They aren’t enemies.

The question isn’t:

How much can I remove from my life so I can prove that I am generous?

The question becomes:

Father, what do You want me to do with what You have put in my hands?

Sometimes the answer may be:

Feed your family well.

Sometimes:

Pay this bill.

Sometimes:

Put this aside.

Sometimes:

Enjoy this.

And sometimes He may put someone on my heart and say:

Give.

Now the common denominator isn’t a percentage.

It’s relationship.

We Are Not the Provider

This has perhaps been one of the greatest financial lessons of our years in Tennessee:

We are not the provider. God is.

That doesn’t mean we stop budgeting.

Believe me, I have a beautiful system when the money is available.

I make plans. I calculate what we need. I try to steward what comes in wisely.

But a budget only works when the expected money actually comes in.

When it doesn’t, I have had to learn again and again that my ability to create a perfect financial system is not what ultimately provides for my family.

God is our Provider.

That doesn’t make the numbers imaginary. It doesn’t make bills disappear. It doesn’t mean there aren’t uncomfortable weeks when I am juggling what gets paid and when.

It means money doesn’t get to occupy God’s position.

Money is a resource.

It isn’t my source.

And giving isn’t a mechanism I use to convince God to provide.

That is the death of transactional faith.

I don’t give so God will bless me.

I don’t withhold because I am afraid there won’t be enough.

I don’t sacrifice to prove that I trust Him.

I get to walk with Him.

What are You doing with this, Father?

What is mine to hold?

What is mine to release?

What are You providing for us to enjoy?

Where are You inviting us to participate in Your generosity?

That is a very different relationship with money.

When My Heart Wants to Give but My Hand Can’t

There is still grief in this season.

I want to be able to have God put someone on my heart and respond without first asking the bank account for permission.

I want margin.

I want to be able to bless someone extravagantly simply because it delighted my Father to put the idea in my heart.

And right now, I can’t always do that.

But I am learning not to confuse financial limitation with a lack of generosity.

Perhaps that is part of what Jesus saw when He watched the widow.

Everyone else could see two tiny coins.

Jesus could see her heart.

Heaven’s accounting system apparently doesn’t measure generosity simply by the amount leaving someone’s hand.

And I think that means I can come to God honestly in this season and say:

Father, You know I want to give. I simply don’t have it in my hand right now.

I don’t think He responds with condemnation.

I think He sees the readiness of the heart.

When Love Leads Our Giving

Maybe Water Walkers was where I learned to remove the gun.

But this season, while writing Dancing on the Waves, is teaching me how to live once it’s gone.

Because without fear, I can finally discover generosity.

Without obligation, I can discover desire.

Without transaction, I can discover relationship.

And without a percentage telling me that I have fulfilled my responsibility, I can keep my whole life open before God and ask:

What are You doing with this?

I don’t want money to give me permission to follow what God puts on my heart.

But I also don’t want condemnation deciding what I am allowed to receive, enjoy, or provide for my family.

I want to live with an open hand.

An open hand can give.

An open hand can receive.

An open hand can enjoy.

An open hand can hold something God has entrusted to it without guilt.

And maybe that is what cheerful giving looks like.

Not forcing ourselves to smile while fear tells us what we must surrender.

But becoming so secure in the generosity of our Father that generosity begins to grow naturally in us.

Maybe the goal was never simply to become people who faithfully give ten percent.

Maybe it is to become people who increasingly know the heart of a generous Father—and because we know Him, become generous too.

Not because we have to.

But because love leads us.

In everything you do -eat, play, and love- may it always be seasoned with Joy!

INVESTING IN YOURSELF IS A GOOD INVESTMENT

If you are interested in gaining a stewardship mindset from the inside out, I highly recommend the Wealth with God course with James Baker. This Course revolutionized the way we steward and invest our money now. I took what I learned, set goals, transformed my mind, and now I am sharing it with you. That’s being a wise steward.

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