Guard your heart against believing that your money is something you earned all by yourself. If you struggle to give to God, it might be time to ask yourself if you have become more attached to the gift than the Giver. If you have never committed yourself to regular giving, read this: ‘Bring all the offerings into the storehouse… If you do… I will open the windows of Heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put Me to the test!’ (Malachi 3:10 NLT)

A pastor received this letter from a couple in his church: ‘We were behind with our rent and car payments. We were $40000 in debt, with no food in the fridge, and we’d just started a construction business. So when you challenged us to give a regular offering as part of our commitment to God, we thought, “How can we give what we don’t have?” Nevertheless, we decided to go ahead and honour God by giving sacrificially. The very first week we met a contractor who asked us to build a house, with more to follow. Now we no longer questioned how we’d fulfil our commitment to God; in fact, we increased our giving! And if the story ended there, it would still be a good one. But you can’t outgive God. Through a series of divinely orchestrated events, we went from being renters to being homeowners. Today, we’re enjoying financial blessing. And even though this story is all about trusting God, on reflection we’re still trying to answer one question: “What exactly was it that we sacrificed?”’