The Thing I Ignored in My Faith for Years.

For so long, I ignored this part of my faith because I thought it didn't apply to me. Broke, young, in college, I don't have a lot of money! But I do have some, and in this episode, I tell you about the ways God radically impacted me and created a deeper dependence on him when I started tithing and giving back. It's easy to feel like this doesn't apply because we don't have a certain amount of money, but that's not the case at all. When we give, we have open hands for God to bless us even more! Listen to this episode to learn more about my faith journey as I relate it to money!

Transcript

Welcome And Life Update

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Hello everyone and welcome back to the Saver the Savior podcast. I'm your host, Avery, and wow, guys, my life has been so crazy, full with so much good stuff, but it just feels so chaotic, and yeah, a lot of big decisions, a lot of interviews and different jobs, and so it's just been a whirlwind, but it's been great, it has been great, and yeah. So today I'm gonna be talking about something that is kind of crazy, and something that I literally ignored for so much of my faith, and I just didn't really want to

Why Tithing Felt Not For Me

SPEAKER_00 0:54

deal with it. I thought it didn't apply to me because I was young and living under, you know, my parents' household, and I just thought that that was something that adults did, like not me. I am really broke, I have other things to pay for. I will do that when I'm older, I'll do that when I have kids, when I get married, when I live on my own, and that is tithing. Yay! I know everybody loves talking about money. No one loves talking about money, but it's super important, and I'm gonna tell you the way that the Lord has just refined me and shaped me in so many ways by tithing. And guys, I am actually like astounded by the ways that the Lord has just been able to bless me as I live more open-handed and as I trust him with my finances, and so I think it's really easy for everyone to just kind of get in the mindset of like, oh, I'm just a broke college student, oh, you know, I have other things to pay for. And listen, we all can be broke, but there's a parable in Luke 21, it's also in Mark 12, I believe it is.

The Widow’s Offering And Our Excuses

SPEAKER_00 2:05

And I'm just gonna read it. It says, Well, Jesus was in the temple, he watched the rich people dropping their gifts in the collection box. Then a poor widow came by and dropped in two small coins. I tell you the truth, Jesus said. This poor widow has given more than all the rest of them, for they have given a tiny part of their surplus, but she, poor as she is, has given everything she has. This stood out to me so much because I think we do act from a place of like when I have more, but the reality is, is when you have more, I think you're actually gonna cling tighter to all that you have. When it's more, when it's less, I think we make excuses when we don't have a lot of money because and we just say we just don't have enough. When the reality is it's like, okay, you say you don't have enough, but if we looked at your bank statement right now, we would see Starbucks coffee thrift. That's what mine would say. Starbucks coffee thrift, wherever, sports games, sports betting, whatever you want to call it, whatever you spend your money on, maybe you shop online, maybe it's Amazon, Target. I don't know what it is. You are the only one that can answer that question, but you look at your your statements and what you're paying for, and that's really what your money is going towards. And, you know, we we want to say we don't have enough money, but we're just spending the money on ourselves and what we want is the reality of it. But this widow, when she didn't have when she had so little, you know, we want to say, oh, we're poor, we're broke college students. But this widow who literally had barely anything, two small coins, and I think of like larger coins of like maybe a quarter, two small coins. This could have been dimes, I don't even know if they even had those back in the day, but two small coins, but it was everything she had. While she didn't have much, she gave everything she had because she was willing to trust God with it. Maybe she was like, Listen, I don't have much, Lord, but this is what I have, and I'll give it to you, and I trust you with it. But everybody else is giving a really, really tiny part of their surplus, they're not even giving a lot, and we have a verse that says that God loves a cheerful giver. Second Corinthians 9, 7 says this for God loves a person who gives cheerfully. Guys, we're not only supposed to give and be like, uh, okay, here you go. But God loves a cheerful giver, someone who's eager to give to the kingdom of God, someone who's eager to give back and trust God with their finances. I it's so weird because we think that this is not a big deal and we think that this is so small. But guys, my life changed, my faith changed so much when I actually started to trust the Lord with the money that I was earning and working, you know, like you work for money, and sometimes it's like, oh, but that's my money, you know. When you grow up, you're like when you learn that you're when you learn the difference of between your money and your parents' money, and you're just like you hold on really tightly. At least I did. I hold on so tightly, you know. Oh, I have to buy a car. Oh, I have to pay back for my car, I have to pay for my car insurance, I have to pay for gas, I have to pay for X, Y, Z. Fill in the blank. You will have to pay bills, you will have to pay stuff literally for the rest of your life. But guys, I literally never experienced the Lord providing for me in such a way until I was honest with myself and really said, honestly, God, I'm just gonna, I'm gonna trust you with what I'm earning because there's literally no way, you know, the banks that you trust, the people, if you're lending someone money or you're giving someone money, like, or your money, you're trusting them with it. And God is literally asking us to not only like, hey, help the kingdom of God, advance the kingdom of God, but trust me with your finances, you know. I think it was a big lack of like, I didn't actually trust God with my finances, and I just didn't want to, you know, I just wanted to hold on to it for myself. But the reality is is looking at my bank statements, looking at the what I actually spent my money on, I just realized I was like, there's a much bigger need out there, and what my the little preferences that I want to get a coffee every day to whatever are just not worth it. And I have there's so there's a lot of greater things that that could go towards.

Cheerful Giving Builds Trust

SPEAKER_00 6:33

I was at a CU conference my freshman year of college, and they had someone come on stage and they had people share a story about this kid who ended up being sponsored through someone their sponsor in the United States, and throughout their whole life until they were 18, they were sponsored by these people. He literally got to meet the people that had sponsored him every month for uh until he, you know, grew old, grew older into his, you know, teen years, late teen years. And not only that, I just they said something, they were just asking, like, how much money are you spending on coffee, you know? And I was just so heavily convicted. I was like, I really, really need to sponsor a boy. And I was like, I don't have a lot, but I also am trusting like the Lord will provide too. That also I was like, you know, I can make a change in my, you know, it's not like I said, okay, Lord, I'm gonna trust you to provide, but I'm also gonna go out and every single day spend seven dollars on something for me, drink, a coffee, whatever you want to fill in the blank. And I think it's different. I think the struggle is that we might ask God for provide provision. Like, I might say, God, I'm really struggling with finance. I'm really struggling with money. And he's like, Okay, well, where are you putting it? Like, have you even given me any of it? You know, I've been asking you to tithe at least 10%, and that's not even being generous, you know. We talk about being generous, is like you don't only have to, you know, there's not like a limit on how much you can give the Lord. But we want to ask God to provide, and believe me, he wants to provide, but he also can't give you stuff if your hands are closed. And if you don't even open your hands and actually give him some money to prove and to show, like, hey Lord, I trust you with this, and I'm not just like holding on to it all for myself. He will provide so much more. You guys, I cannot, I literally, this topic of money, guys, it gets me stirring, it gets me stirring. Let me just tell you, my freshman year of high school, after that compassion kid, I realized we saw the compassion kid who ended up, he was all grown up, and he told us the story of his life, of how he was sponsored and where he got to be then, and just meeting his sponsors, it was just so incredible, so cool.

Conviction Moments Coffee To Disney

SPEAKER_00 9:00

So they gave us opportunities to sponsor kids, and so I was like, you know what, I'm gonna do it. So I have been sponsoring a kid, which has been amazing, by the way. Go on Compassion's website, it's $43 a month, and honestly, just do it. Like you're changing a kid's life, you're providing for a kid so we can have food, water, clothing, school, and participate in activities, learn about Jesus, like all these things. And I, you know, I'm just so grateful that I'm able to do that. He writes me letters and it's literally adorable. And literally, if you want a pen pal, be pen pals with an eight-year-old because it's it's genuinely amazing. So yeah, I've been sponsoring him. It's been so, so sweet. I also in my freshman year was heavily convicted by the Lord when I'm sitting on like my floor of my dorm, my freshman dorm. And as I'm sitting on the floor of my freshman dorm, all of my friends were all talking about Disney passes and Disney Annual passes. And if you go to SEU, you kind of know like a lot of people have Disney passes, and everybody loves to buy Disney passes and go because it's about 45 minutes away and it's really close, and it's just a fun thing to do. And so all my friends are like, yeah, you gotta do it, just do it, buy the pass, yada yada. So here I am, and I wasn't even looking at the cheaper pass, I was looking at the expensive one. I was looking at the one that was almost twice as much as the other pass. See, the Monday through Friday pass at the time, it's not this anymore, it was literally like $390. And this other one was close to eight, about $800. I think it might have been $800. And it was like $800. And I was thinking about getting the $800 one, which was a like Saturday through Sunday with blockout dates. And so the other one wasn't weekends. So, anyways, I was really, really close. I literally was like about to buy this pass that is like a couple hundred dollars short of a thousand dollars, which is a lot of money, guys. Like, I don't have a lot of money, and I didn't have enough money to be like spending like 90% of what was in my bank account to begin with. You know, I like should not have been that comfortable and I should not have been that quick to be like, oh yeah, like let's almost do this. So I was so close, and the Lord's voice just so quietly, so gentle but loving, you are so quick to spend eight hundred dollars on a Disney pass, but yeah, what have you given to me? Yet you've given like nothing to me, and I just was like, Oh my gosh, we're doing this. And I'm like, Yep, he's right. And yeah, he did that, and so I literally was like, you know what, you're right. I didn't buy that FYI, ended up buying the cheaper one later on, but that is not the point. I I don't want to like toot on my own horn, but I'm gonna tell you the story so that you understand full transparency of like how this played out. I gave a very large donation to, or not donation, I just gave a lot of what I had earned to the church in an in an uncomfortable amount of money that I was never planning on sending to the church and giving and like wasn't even like a tithe. I hadn't been tithing my money, I hadn't been tithing anything I earned over the summers, I hadn't given anything back to the church. It was a very uncomfortable amount of money that I was like, this makes me uncomfortable, but I know that it's going to do good, and I know that it's worth it. And I was like, you know what? I just really need to do this. And the moment that I gave that money to the Lord, I was able to see the Lord work in so many different ways, in so many new ways, amazing ways, and it was just so cool to watch him go to actually being a provider for me because I really was a lot shorter on my money then, and it sounds like stressful, but guys, this is just the craziest thing ever.

When Provision Shows Up

SPEAKER_00 12:59

I'm not even kidding you. So, not long after this, you know, I have just been praying about finances. It's kind of hard when you're in your freshman year. I was like, I didn't want to get a job, but also didn't really have a car, so I couldn't get one off campus. I could get one on campus, but the thing is, is it's just kind of I didn't really want to do that, you know. And I just praying and praying and praying for finances. And at the time I was spending like $60 a week on groceries because I didn't eat anything at the dining hall, and I just like made smoothies and ate food at my dorm. And so I was spending a chunk of money on groceries, and I literally was talking to one of my good friends about this. I was like, I'm spending $60 on groceries, like it's literally crazy. And I get a Venmo, guys, literally praying for the for the Lord to provide because getting we're getting really low on finances, and I literally get a Venmo from that friend that I told about the groceries, and I was not at all implying that she gave me money. She literally sent me $60 for groceries that week, and I was floored, like actually shook. And I'm like, God, you are so good. You are literally so good. Like you literally see me, and what a god that he uses, you know, my friends and the people around me. And like, thank you to her for being so faithful to just send me that money, and like that is not a small thing, but I literally so seen by the Lord and so heard, and it's like I I really, I just literally cannot because that is actually amazing, and never in my life have I had something like that happen. But the Lord was able to provide for me in a way that I would have never experienced had I not actually been like, no, I'm actually gonna. It's kind of like it's like you're giving back to the Lord to trust that he is going to bless you and he and he will, he literally will. This is literal proof of that. Not long after, keep praying, provision, whatever. Literally, I get a $20 Apple cash from my friend's mom. So random. I do not talk to her ever. We went on family vacation a couple years ago. It was great, but I literally have not texted her, like maybe texted her like you know, once a once that year before, like rarely talked to her at all. She just felt the nudging to send me $20 for, you know, coffee, lunch, whatever it was. And I'm literally like, okay, I'm done. Like, I cannot, guys. And the moments that I thought like I wouldn't be able to pay for the $43, I would get so I'd get like, you know, we're we're below $100 at one point in my bank. Like we've been, we've been real low, guys. And somehow every time I get like a refund check in the mail from SEU. Like, what is this? I don't know, but it's the Lord providing, guys. And it I'm just blown away. Guys, it literally is insane. And I'm literally telling you, the Lord wants to bless you, He wants to provide, and He wants to give you His blessings, and He wants to use His people to bless you, but He literally cannot bless someone if they cannot hold it, if they do not have open hands. I'm literally telling you some of the best experiences I had in the Lord just coming through on my prayers too. I think I just it was so easy to It was so easy to pray the prayers of like God provide, God give me money, God whatever. And I but the moments that I just became more faithful to Him of like obedient, of like no, like tithing includes me too. Like it's not just for my parents, it's not just for people who have a house, it is literally for everyone. And I really wish I started tithing when I was younger because I think I really would have it would have been an easier transition because I would have been used to it. I think the hard part when you get older is is like you it's really uncomfortable. It's really uncomfortable if you haven't been doing it, and I just like hopped into that and I just was like, this feels uncomfortable. I'm like, I feel like I'm sending like quite a bit of a chunk of my money, and it's literally only 10%, which is crazy because I even need to be giving, you know, more than 10%, but even 10% feels like a lot, like it's hard when you are so I think it like just reveals like how much of money is an idol to all of us, and it's like if we can't tithe it, we are treating it like an idol because we won't trust the Lord with even 10% of our finances. It's crazy because it's like we want to we trust him with our life, we say we trust you with all of these things, we trust you with these decisions, we trust you with our jobs, we trust you with our spouse, XYZ, we trust you with all of these things, but the one thing I won't trust you with is that 10% that I'm making in my paycheck. And it's like the Lord is asking us why, you know, and honestly, even my church said, like you don't even have to tithe 10% to us if you

Money Idols And Heart Posture

SPEAKER_00 18:09

don't trust us where money's going. Tie 10% somewhere else. Go give it to someone else, you know, or some some other organization, whatever it is. I think it's just so easy for us to hold on tightly to, you know, control and for the things that we are like, yeah, we really need I really need money for this or you know, for that. And I think the Lord wants to bless us. I think it's just so hard to bless someone who has a closed hand. And I saw God literally provide time after time after time his provision all over me. It just is incredible, and I just cannot stress enough how important it is to give back to the Lord what he's already giving you, you know. Like nothing that we have is even ours to begin with. Like we're supposed to treat everything that we have as a gift from the Lord. And so if it is a gift from the Lord, you know, why when he asks for a very small portion of that back? And I think that honestly, it it forms our heart posture. I don't think he's even asking for it back because he needs it, because he doesn't need it, because he's God, but it actually transforms our heart posture and helps us to become, you know, cheerful givers. It helps us to become generous and it helps us to really trust the Lord with more than just what we say, you know. I say I trust God with my life, but I don't even trust him with my bank account. And it's like, well, why is that? You know, ask those questions. Why, why do I not want to tithe? Why does that make me uncomfortable when I'm spending all my money this, you know, we spend $300 over this past year on coffee or whatever? And it's like, why doesn't it make me a little bit more uncomfortable the fact that that is something that gives me, you know, enjoyment, but then I haven't given anything back to the Lord. And it's just very interesting. So I challenge you, I challenge you to see what the Lord does and how he blesses you as you tithe and give back to his kingdom. And you don't even, like I said, you don't have to give it to a random church or whatever, give it to something you believe in, give it to an organization that you believe in, or even start with sponsoring a kid from compassion. I mean, that's how I started, and then when I started receiving paychecks, it was like slowly, it was like, okay, I'm doing this every week. And yeah, it just was something I really ignored. Uh, I didn't think it applied to me, but I actually think it absolutely applies to me. I think it should have applied to me when I started my job. And, you know, I I wish I had started it younger. I think it would have been a more like natural thing, you know. I think as you as you do get older or you make more money, you're I think you honestly become more tightly. You hold more tightly to it, and it's just that is not gonna help us if we're hogging onto all the money that we make when we could be putting it towards a different cause and something else. And so, yeah, I would encourage you guys with that. I s really, really think it's so important to tithe. I think it's so important to give back. I think the Lord is, you know, I mean, like he told us in Luke that she's given more than all these other people, even those other these other people have given, you know, so little of what they have. It's like she has given everything she has, you know. Would ask, I mean, ask yourself like, are how much are you willing to give the Lord? Like, are are you even willing to give the Lord money and what you've earned? And it's like, well, I've earned this, and it's like, yeah, well, you know what? Jesus died on the cross for you, so I'm pretty sure. God is God is above us in this right now. I'm pretty sure and He's the one and He keeps blessing us. And even if you don't tithe, He's still done something good for you and He will still do good things for you. But I'm saying that the Lord wants to bless you, and it's really hard to bless someone with a closed hand. And I have just realized that tithing is very important to our faith and to the way we trust God in all aspects of our life, kind of like the bubble. It's like let God flow into all parts of your life and not just like your work career life, but like your work life, like your paycheck, which is so uncomfortable. And I know we all hate this conversation, but it's fine because we needed to have it anyways. So yeah, I would absolutely encourage you to give back to the Lord.

Small Generosity That Changes Days

SPEAKER_00 23:04

You know, I I felt I feel way more equipped to bless other people, especially after, you know, the Lord's been blessing me. After the Lord's has blessed me, there was a very sweet old lady in Paris, and I remember just feeling like I was just supposed to pay for her her food at Aldi. And she doesn't even understand me because I speak English. And she's speaking, I think she said thank you, but I don't know. She was very confused. She was so confused, guys. If you wanna just for kicks and giggles, literally go to another country and pay for someone's food and just like watch how confused they get. Because here I am, just this like American girl just in Aldi, just like I'm like, I uh she had like ring up her food or whatever, and I was like, I'm gonna I'm gonna pay for it. Like I used like my cart, and she like looked at me like what? Like she was so sweet, and I literally was like, Yeah, not a big deal, whatever. And it wasn't a lot, guys. Like, I'm I'm not even telling, like, you don't even have to do, but you don't even have to pay for someone's you know $40 meal or whatever, or like you can, you don't have to, but I'm saying, like, little steps, take little steps if you're you know, literally give generously and give cheerfully. I mean, that was a really easy way for me to feel really like empowered, you know, to do something like that for someone, like a random person, but how happy she was like, I mean, I have no idea what she's going through. I never saw her again, and I won't ever see her again, probably. And so, but it's like to see her joy and to see like the honestly the confusion because she was just she was very confused because she's like, Why is this person paying for for my groceries? The joy that she showed me and had, I just was like, Wow, that's priceless, that's priceless, and those are things like if someone pays for your coffee. I remember even this, guys, random, literally random moments of kindness and all of these things. I had a really bad day, and I went to get myself a Duncan coffee because when you had a bad day, now I do not condone that because Duncan, like of all the places to get coffee, why did I choose Duncan? That was how I was introduced to coffee, and now I'm on to better and local coffee shops. Anyways, not the point. I went to get a Duncan, and I was pulling, I was pulling into this Duncan, and there was like another car, and so I wait for the car to go ahead of me, like you could go ahead of me, and then I was gonna I was gonna go behind him, and so he pulled into the drive-thru for Duncan, and then I just pulled behind him. I essentially just let him go in front of me, like you know, why not? And he was the one that paid for my coffee, and I literally was like, Wow, that was so kind, and I wow, like that just really made my day and made my literally everything. I mean, that was so kind of him, and obviously just these small acts of kindness go so far, and those things, it's like you hold on to those things. I'm sure if you thought of a moment that someone was kind to you or extended, you know, blessings to you, you remembered it, and you're just like, wow, that meant so much to me. And so, you know, be that person, you know, there's no reason you can't be that person. Go and give someone and give generously and cheerfully, and the Lord will bless you. He really will. And yeah, I'm excited to hear about the stories how the

Challenge To Try Tithing

SPEAKER_00 26:39

Lord blesses you. Please tell me if you are praying for provision and for the Lord to provide, and in some ways he does, and I know he will. Please let me know. Literally send me a text, DM, whatever it is, and let me know because I would love to hear your stories about how the Lord provides in your life and the ways he provides for your life. Yeah. I had a couple missions trips that I had to fundraise for, never fundraised in my life, had to fundraise about six thousand dollars for these missions trips, which is a lot of money when I've never fundraised ever. But I trusted the Lord and the Lord provided, and so here's your encouragement. Don't just sit around and wait for him to provide. You can give back to the Lord too. It doesn't mean you have to give everything you have. Start with a little bit, and if it makes you uncomfortable, good, because I think that's good. I don't think I think we're always meant to tie. Then when we start to get a little uncomfortable, it's because we are probably keeping it at an idol, and we're just really comfortable with our money, and we're not as comfortable sharing it or spending it on things that we feel like don't benefit us, but this benefits you and it benefits the kingdom of God, and if it benefits the kingdom of God, it benefits you. Okay, guys, I hope you enjoyed this little shorter episode on tithing and money and giving back to the kingdom of God. And hopefully people actually listen to this because I know it's an uncomfortable topic to talk about, and I would have never clicked on a podcast talking about money if I was in middle school or high school, or even until I've learned that tithing is actually important for me to do. And so hopefully you guys found this helpful and encouraging, and I am so excited to see that the way that the Lord works through your lives, through your finances, as you trust him with them. Thanks so much for tuning in to Savor the Savior podcast.