I don’t know about you, but I often have an issue with trust. I trust all the time. I trust a financial advisor to plan my retirement income. I trust a mechanic (Bob and Todd) to fix my truck. I trust the restaurant I eat at to make sure the food has nothing in it that will hurt me. I trust Jesus to save me from my sins. I trust all the time. My issue with trust is trusting God to lead me in the right direction, to take care of my future.
I think that is particularly true when it comes to money. Right now, I am trying to sock away as much as I can because when I look at what I have saved up, it seems so small. But this much I know deep down, that God has said that if we are faithful in our giving to him, he will faithfully take care of us. That has been true all my life. I have always been committed to tithing. In the past every time I got a raise I raised the amount of giving so that I would be giving just above 10%. But about five or six years ago I was preparing a stewardship series and I ran across an old story that I had read many times before. It was about John Wesley that every year regardless of his salary he lived on the same amount, 28 pounds. Did not matter if he made 100 pounds, he lived on 28 and gave the rest for God’s work. Isn’t it perfectly in keeping with Scripture? “Your plenty will supply what they need. . . . You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion” (2 Corinthians 8:14; 9:11).Perhaps you’ll never be as radical as Wesley—I’m certainly not, but his example inspires me and makes me reevaluate my lifestyle and giving.So at that time I resolved that every year I would give a little more regardless of my income. And God has been faithful in providing so that I have not missed it.
That shouldn’t surprise me, God’s word is full of promises of God’s care for us. John Stott points to one of those Ephesians 3:20-21 which says Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
John Stott points out there are seven great stages in this statement by the Apostle Paul.
- God is able to do because he is not idle or inactive or dead.
- God can do what we ask because he hears us when we pray.
- He can do what we think because he knows what we think before we think it.
- He can do all we ask or think because he knows it all and can do it all.
- He can do more than we ask or think because his plans are bigger than our plans.
- He can do much more than we ask or think because there is no holding back with God.
- He can do exceedingly abundantly beyond what we can imagine because he is the God of the superlative.