Stewardship Article

A Step of Faith
By Ron Weisenfeld


One of my earliest memories about tithing is associated with a church that took a "faith-based" approach to giving. We were all asked to prayerfully ask God to lay on our hearts what He would have us tithe. We were not to consider our income or what we thought we could give but rather be completely open to the guiding of the Holy Spirit. I decided to give it a try, so in prayer, I asked God to let me know what He required of me. The number 3000 kept popping into my head and I kept thinking "No God, that can't possibly be it, you must have made a mistake, maybe you meant that amount for another Ron Weisenfeld, there is no humanly way possible that we can afford to give that much."  I attempted to pray about it several more times and always the same results, and for days the number 3000 would make its way into my consciousness in odd ways. There was an advertisement on TV for some product that cost $3000, or some event that drew, you guessed it, 3000 people.

As the time drew closer to turn in our gift card, I mentioned my "wrestling match with God" to my wife and what she said stunned me. She said that she had also been praying about the same thing and had gotten literally the same answer, 3000, but she was afraid to tell me. The coincidence was way too obvious to ignore so in faith we turned in our commitment for $3000 not knowing how we would be able to fulfill our promise.

As we looked for opportunities to give, Cindy donated the money she collected weekly from our grocery coupons; and I pitched in a small, unexpected bonus from work. Here and there money filtered in and we put it all toward our $3000. We never kept up with it and it soon became a habit that we never really thought about. We actually found it humorous to see little tiny amounts of money appear from unexpected sources. At the end of the year when the church sent out statements of giving, we were astonished. We had given $3000, nearly to the penny. I was right, there was no way humanly possible for us to come up with an extra $3000, but God could. He was faithful to provide the funds, as we were obedient to give them. Not once did we experience need beyond what we were already used to. We were never tempted to use the extra money that came to us since we figured it was God's and not ours anyway. God is so great when we step out in faith and obedience!

The biggest blessing we received that year was to see how He provides for His children. Tithing has become a lifestyle for us ever since and we have been through some bountiful times and some very lean times, yet He has always provided for our needs. The lesson I learned was that God wants us to put Him first and to have faith that He will provide. For a long time I had it backward, I wanted to give God what was left over and I was trying to make it all work. God's way is to give to Him first and He will work out the rest! There is just no way to express how it feels to experience God's awesome mercy and love, especially when there is absolutely no rational explanation for it. I am so thankful that we took that tiny step of faith such a long time ago.