Dies-l, you give 10% or more as "grace-giving," that's good. The problem I have is with 10% as "law-giving." The idea that all christians must do this.
I agree. It is important to distinguish "musts" from "shoulds". As Christians, we should want to live a life that is honoring to God and that is filled with the fruit of the Spirit, including generosity. But, when we feel that we must do something, then it becomes nothing more than a step to attempt to earn God's favor. This, I believe is just as true with giving as it is with anything else.
Just for a bit of personal testimony: When I met my wife, I was a recently divorced, new Christian. When we were dating, there were three things that she made known to me: (1) She was unashamedly saving herself for marriage, (2) she did not tolerate cussing, (3) she tithed and always would, and (4) she had been called to serve in a (low paying) ministry position in SE Michigan. I had not problem with (1). I learned to adapt to (2) because I really liked her. And, I hoped that she might change her mind on (3), because I did not think it would be possible for me to part with a full tenth of my income. As for the last one, she never did change her mind, and she has developed me into a tither. When we got married, I was just finishing law school. I spent our first summer, looking for work and preparing for the bar exam. In the fall, I got my bar results (passed), and continued to look for work. There was a part of me that though that I should have no trouble finding a job: I was in the top 1/5 of my law school class and I was doing everything that I was following God faithfully. He had to bless me, right? Not so much, at least not in the way I was expecting.
2007 ended with me still unemployed. In 2008, I managed to pick up some contract work, but I was still unable to find stable employment. In 2009, the contract work dried up and so soon did our savings account. During this time, I also looked at several opportunities to leave Michigan, believing that my wife would just have to submit if that is where I found work. Although I got some strong leads, I could not find any out of state opportunities that would work with me until I could take that state's bar exam. So, no real windows opened out of Michigan either (I thought about taking the Ga. bar exam, but could never find peace in that decision).
When I had graduated, I had gotten the sense that God was telling me to start my own practice and that He would bless it. But, I was afraid, because I preferred the stability of someone else taking all the risks and just giving me a paycheck. Finally, in October, after it became obvious that I was not going to find stable employment, I finally decided to try going it on my own. The previous summer, I had gotten to be close friends with a couple of therapists. I later found out that they had a close friend who was a well respected attorney in town. He offered to introduce me around and teach me the basics of practicing law in my county. He also let me know which lawyers in the county were looking for tenants. I found a place to set up an office with a lawyer who is very laid back and has been more than willing to work with me in taking care of rent as I can afford to pay (and rent is quite low to begin with). I had an advertising salesperson teach me all the tricks to get free advertising in the legal profession (which I found ironic, because it enabled me to not need to buy the service she was selling). And, in the past 2 months, I have been watching my practice take off.
In short, I see God's hand all over my legal practice, in the connections that I have made with other lawyers, with the clients that I have gained, and wit the revenue that is coming in (not much at all, but any amount is more than one should expect for a brand new practice). More importantly, my wife and I have learned some valuable lessons: We have learned, for example, how to live on very little; we have learned how to distinguish between wants and needs and to live simply; we have learned to trust God even when things are difficult; we have learned how to be responsible stewards of what God gives us, however much or little that may be. Most importantly, we have learned that God is faithful and will provide seed to the sower. All He asks is that we sow the seed (invest in the Kingdom with our minds, hearts, time, and resources) and trust that He will make it grow.
We are still struggling financially. Just last week, I sold my car because we decided that we could not afford the payment and that we needed to be rid of that idol in our lives. So, now we are a one car family. We eat on a shoestring grocery budget; we have no entertainment budget to speak of; and we live in a modest little (by American standards) apartment. Most of our money goes to pay off debt. But, we will not consider not tithing nor will we consider not giving to missions. We have a roof over our heads, and we eat three meals a day (usually more). In the past three years, God has made sure of that and He continues to do so, even as He provides for my new law practice.
Most importantly, he is teaching us, as He taught the Israelites, to rely on Him alone for our sustenance. The other day, I was talking to a woman in my church, and she said "it can be tough being a manna eater." My first response was "I don't want to be that kind of lawyer. There are too many maneaters in the legal profession already." But, then she clarified what she said, and I realized that that summarized what God has been teaching us, in part, because of our decisions on how to use our time, where to live and where to serve (including the decision to stay in Michigan even though it makes no sense whatsoever in this economy. The career services office at my law school told me back in 2008 that the only advice they could give me was to get the heck out of Michigan if I wanted to find a job). Nothing could substitute for what God has shown us during this time.
