[Today we have a re-post of an earlier entry on generosity. For more great book and website ideas visit our “Stewardship Toolkit.”]
Arachnophobia, Claustrophobia, Xenophobia, Acrophobia…and the list goes on and on. I Googled phobia to check the spelling of a few and found page after page after page. Fear of almost anything has a name. However, I couldn’t find a phobia for giving or generosity. Yet, isn’t it true that we fear giving away what we have? After all, maybe we won’t have what we need down the road.
Andy Stanley, in his book, Fields of Gold, addresses the idea of how fear keeps us from “sowing” the seeds of generosity in order to reap a spiritual harvest that far surpasses anything we could imagine.
“Under the mounting weight of uncertainty, it’s easy to become irrational about our possessions. We lose sight of who really owns them. We fail to grasp how we should be sowing them for God’s kingdom. And we get confused about what we should really fear regarding our finances in this life – like facing eternity having sown only a few handfuls of our personal wealth for God’s kingdom.”
The end of the first chapter reminds us to examine what Jesus had to say about fear. “In Matthew 6:33, Jesus assures us that when we seek His kingdom first with our seed, we need not fear being wiped out:
‘…he will give you all you need from day to day if you live for him and make the Kingdom of God your primary concern.‘ (NLT)”
This short book is truly a treasure full of exhortation from scripture as well as personal stories from Andy’s own stewardship journeys. Share with us some of your journeys. How has God lead you to overcome fear in the area of giving?
Renae Nanney
Keynote, Development
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