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Be sure to read the article first, omitting the Scriptures. Then look up the Scriptures and mark them in your Bible. Feel free to pass copies of this article to others who want to know God’s truth. You will be doing God’s Will when you show and tell others how to live this special Way.

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Minneapolis, MN 55426

God’s money jar

Once we have begun fighting our evil natures and commence setting aside money in a jar to do good with for God, we may be confused about just exactly what to do with it. If we don’t know or are even the least bit doubtful, it’s a perfect excuse for Satan to trick us into doing nothing. Any plan, not followed, will not work. Satan knows this, and he knows that most of us are dumb, lazy and indifferent enough not to follow through. He knows if we do follow through, chances are we won’t be consistent. God knows that too. That is why He wants us to get together to provoke each other to do more good works of love (Heb. 10:24-25).

If we’re to make it as disciples of Jesus Christ, we’re going to have to fight the good fight of faith. It is a daily fight and winners never quit. Many of us fear that we might not have what it takes to live a spiritual life for God. Thus, we fulfill Philippians 2:12, which tells us to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. Our Creator, Jesus Christ, said we will have to strive to be converted. Yes, it’s true that only a few are being saved (Luke 13:23-24; Matt. 22:14). We must force ourselves to enter the kingdom of God, which is within our hearts (Luke 16:16; 17:21). That’s why God warns us not to be foolish, but find out what God’s Will is and do it! Do it! Do it (Eph. 5:17)! Otherwise, we have passed up the whole purpose of this life and missed the reason for being born. If we are going to renew our minds by exercising God’s Will, then we must know what it is (Rom. 12:2). Doesn’t this make sense?

Examples

Here are some examples of things you could do to perform God’s Will with money. Remember, the money given to God cannot be taken back or you’re stealing! You could:

Buy lunch for a friend and practice not being tight with money.
Buy some cookies and coffee or juices to entertain the elderly and take it to their home (James 1:27).
Have a party at your home and show love to a multitude of people at one time. You would be learning how to be a host, how to serve and how to be kind and courteous to others. Most of all you would be learning how to put other people’s comforts before your own. You would be learning how to be the last in line and make sure everyone else has been served first (Luke 14:13; Mark 9:35).
Send flowers to people as an act of showing love, for a special occasion or to say thank you. You could turn someone’s bad day into a good day. Just think of all the people they would tell. This one act would do so much good and be such a good example to others.
Give a lawn mower to your neighbor who needs one but cannot afford to buy it. If you bought a new mower with God’s money, they probably wouldn’t accept it. Their pride and self-esteem would be hurt. So, using the wisdom that God gives you, go out and buy yourself a nice new mower and give the old one, which is in good shape, to your neighbor.
Send flowers and a thoughtful card to someone who is hospitalized in another state. Then, call long distance and talk for an hour. Don’t worry about the money. God will gladly pay it out of the money you have set aside for Him.
Take your spouse out for a wonderful night on the town. Buy a gift or some flowers. Do God’s Will by showing love to your loved ones and do good for them. Of course, it would not be God’s Will to use His money exclusively to do good for your own family. That would be selfishness. Remember, you cannot con God. He is continually testing and trying your heart. He knows a phony when He sees one, and He’ll keep working with you until His righteousness comes from your heart.
Come to the aid of a family whose telephone service is about to be shut off. Investigate and find out if the bill was not paid because tragedy struck. Perhaps medical bills have consumed the family’s money. Pay the phone bill and don’t ask any questions. Also, it would be a good idea to buy some groceries for the family.
You learn that Fred’s wife died from cancer. The three boys and four young girls are solely Fred’s responsibility now. It cost Fred $275,000 to slow down the death process that was to take his terminally-sick wife at Mercy Hospital. Fred just got laid off from work and he is seriously behind in his bills because of the tragedy. Isn’t that a heavy? You immediately recognize this as a legitimate need. Fred is now a widower and it pleases God to help widows in distress. In compassion for Fred and his children, you buy a whole car-load of groceries out of your own money and not God’s. It’s starting to come from your heart! You tell Fred that you will take care of his kids so he can look for another job, and you make sure he has enough gas for his car to do so. You buy clothes and food and take care of all their needs. You check around to see if anyone you know could give Fred a job. You pray constantly that God will come to the rescue and bless him and his children. You pray that God will send him a new wife to ease the wounds and give the children a mother. Next, you discover the bank has demanded his mortgage payments be brought up to date within 72 hours or he will lose his home. Fred had allowed the payments to fall behind during this tragedy because he felt he could trust the banker who claimed to be a born-again Christian. Fred is learning wisdom the hard way. You decide to take up a collection so Fred won’t lose his house. Because of the enormity of the problem, you tell others who are living for God about Fred’s problems, but you do not ask them to help. If they don’t know enough to help without being asked, it would do little good to ask them. If you are tested with an opportunity similar to this example, God will bless you richly if you serve the afflicted to the best of your ability.

The learning process

God’s money jar is designed to teach you how to do good with money. God even gives you His money with which to learn because He loves you. He knows how hard it is for you to part with your own money, so He lets you practice by giving away His.

In a little while, God starts blessing you for all the good you are doing for Him by dispersing His money. God blesses you more and more so you will have an abundance for every good deed. The more God blesses, the more you set aside for God. Eventually, you are dispersing a tremendous amount of God’s money to needy people and showing a huge amount of love to others (2 Cor. 9:8-10). You, however, are totally unaware of how much good you are doing. You don’t keep track of how much you do for others or how much of God’s money you give away to the needy. It’s none of your business anyway. After all, it’s God’s money, not yours, so don’t be a snoop and keep track (Matt. 6:3-4)!

The needy of the world

There are so many people who need help locally, it’s hard to be inspired to help the needy in other countries. If followers of Jesus Christ in those countries would apply these principles in their daily lives, they would take care of their people and we would take care of ours. Are we being good stewards of God’s money when we give to organizations where only a small percentage goes to the source? Why should we support, say, 1,100 people in a non-profit organization, just to get a small bag of rice into the hands of a hungry person in a distant country? In fact, much of the food is actually sold to the poor on the other end and is not given freely.

When you give God’s money personally:

You are sure all of it goes to the source.
You learn righteousness.
You learn to be a servant as Jesus gave us example to be.
You build godly character.
You learn how to be a helper of the blind, the lame, the elderly and the widows.
You learn compassion.
You acquire all the fruits of God’s Spirit.
You overcome your evil nature by doing good for God.
You glorify God by good works.
You can do your righteousness in secret. You won’t have to look at your name on television if you give during a telethon. You won’t have to read your name on a list and be embarrassed at the end of the year by seeing you gave $10 when the next guy gave $525. You won’t have to give by check so the whole world will know what you gave, and violate Scripture that says you should give in secret and not keep track of what you give.
You bear godly fruit on your tree.
You discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness.

Certainly there are times when you can give in a collection or to a legitimate cause. But if you make that your sole method of giving, you will cheat yourself out of repentance because you have not done good daily for God. As a result, you won’t learn righteousness and you won’t receive salvation. Salvation is a free gift, but it goes only to those who repent (Eph. 2:8-10; Acts 26:20).

The doers of the wordÑthose who do God’s Will and keep Christ’s sayingsÑare those who believe and live the message of Jesus Christ daily in their lives (John 11:26). Many people remain religiously deceived because they refuse to read their Bibles and ask God for understanding (2 Tim. 2:7). You don’t need man, you need God. You don’t need tradition, you need truth. It’s the truth, not tradition, that sets you free from religious deception (John 8:32).