Les and Connie, missionary candidates and personal friends of ours visited us. I was asked for advice regarding how to raise funds for their ministry.
I told them that God has huge treasure-houses of unused blessings in heaven, ready to be poured without hesitation upon the weakest prayers of the most timid saint. I am the most timid saint, so I well know this is so.
They wanted to know what do I answer when people ask me if I need financial help. I explained to them that my answer to such a question is:
“You have asked the wrong person. Ask the Lord! He will tell you!”
Then they wanted to know what to answer those that ask them: “Oh, come on! We know you and we trust you, please be frank and tell us your needs and we will do our best to help you!”
I responded that I would reply as follows:
“You are asking me to give you better information. But I want to bless you with a better relationship with God, a living and joyful communing with Him, a practical ongoing communication with Him, so you will talk with Him many times a day, love Him, hug Him and kiss Him. Do not rob God His joy of hearing and answering your prayers, of answering your questions and telling you what you should do, to whom you should give, when you should give and how much you should give. That is God’s privilege, not mine. Furthermore, God does not want me to be an exhibitionist. God has rigorously trained me not to expose the nakedness of my temporary financial need to anyone but Him alone–nor to brag about my temporary abundance! I tell you again, ASK THE LORD! HE WILL TELL YOU! HE WILL NOT RESENT IT!”
During my long life God relentlessly disciplined me to really live by faith, which simply means that I ask God, not man, for what I need.
The average Christian has become spiritually lazy, not even asking God where to funnel tithes and offerings. If you would only ask God, He would gladly tell you, for so He promised. Read it:
“If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.” (James 1:5).
One of the greatest tragedies today, is that Christians have been conditioned to respond to external stimuli, instead of responding to the still, small voice of God in their innermost. Consequently, when Christians review the flood of incoming religious solicitation that bulges their mailboxes, guess who gets their largest donations? Those that print the most professional, heart-breaking photographs, those that beg the loudest from man, those that heed the proverb written by the prophet Greedy-eye-ah 7:1 “The squeaky wheel gets the grease!” True believers have not been instructed to inquire of the Lord alone. They give to the organization that sends them the most colorful and often bizarre begging propaganda, always trumpeted as most urgent.
Likewise, today’s missionaries have not been instructed to pray to God alone for their needs. Why should they? They have learned very well the art of begging from man (a.k.a. “fund-raising.”) And frankly, they have seen some results. Why pray to God when at least they can get some results by praying to man!How much more God would be honored, if missionaries would learn to beg from God only, to pray to God alone.
When considering different options regarding where to send my charities, before I make any decision, God reminds me to pray. Sometimes I have prayed as follows:
Father, to whom do You want me to give? Only once? Regularly? How much? When? How? May my giving be a gift to YOU! May this gift give You the maximum glory. May it help the unsaved to become true Christians, may it be used to propagate the Gospel where it is most needed. Preserve this money from being misused to build one more unnecessary religious building, like a religious pyramid of Pharaohnic ambitions, or a very expensive Taj Mahal, or an ornate Mausoleum to honor the memory of a dead person, or a proud monument to glorify the name of some religious leader with clay feet, like that wacky Waco cultic preacher or an immoral televangelist. Please give me insight and intuition in my giving, so that You alone will be glorified, the gospel preached to those that never heard it before, souls saved, and new Christians encouraged in the faith. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ who gave His life for me. Amen.
From Praying God’s Word – Chapter 14