“Past performance does not guarantee future returns.” You’ve seen that disclaimer on a financial prospectus. Market fluctuations, economic conditions, worldwide crises – unlimited number of factors can impact the return on your investment (ROI).
While we invest financial resources in order to accrue monetary gain, God’s resources produce both tangible and intangible returns. His resources have a guaranteed ROI – with just one caveat. They must be invested with obedience.
Therein lies the rub. You may long to give your time, your finances, and yourself to Kingdom work. Yet with so many choices and causes, how can you know whether you’re giving as God leads … or if you’re following the whims of your heart?
You can know when you ask yourself these three questions.
Question #1: Am I open and available?
As Jon and Samantha set up their conference display, they struck up a conversation with Dan, who also represented a missions-minded ministry. At the end of the day, the young couple asked to spend more time with Dan. The three arranged a Skype call for the following week.
Dan, a senior citizen, knows his time on earth is shorter than it used to be and has become careful about how he spends it. He could have been too busy to talk to Jon and Samantha, keeping his years of hard-earned experience to himself. Yet Dan was willing to accept the “chance” meeting with the young couple as a “God appointment”: an opportunity to be used by God to invest his time, experience, and heart in them. His availability made him open to God’s leading. God led him to invest in the young couple.
One way to know that you’re giving as God leads is your willingness to identify opportunities He places in your path.
Question #2: Is there eternal value in this opportunity?
Opportunities present themselves each day. Because we live in the natural world, we may not always recognize an opportunity’s spiritual value. Introducing another person to Christ … helping her to identify God’s call on her life … leading him to grow deeper with God … these opportunities, when taken, can produce spiritual results that extend beyond time, money, or personal effort invested. And because eternal consequences have far-reaching implications, giving wholeheartedly becomes significantly more meaningful.
You can know you’re giving as God leads when you can look beyond the immediate and see the eternal value in your investment.
Question #3: Do I trust God to produce an increase?
A heart motivated by quantifiable results – a human measuring stick – is a red flag, as David learned when he took Israel’s census as a way to assess his authority and assure himself of power (2 Samuel 24). Effective kingdom giving is not always measured in countable or immediate results. Instead, you might water, prepare the soil, fertilize, dig … and once in awhile, you may be around for the harvest. God allows us to occasionally glimpse numerical results from our ministry so we don’t get discouraged.
You can know if you’re giving as God leads when you’re able to leave the results of your investment in His hands, trusting Him for the increase.
After all, His past performance does guarantee future returns.
