For the most part, I can look at it as an adventure. Planning meals around coupons, hunting the best bargains, finding ways to stay healthy so my uninsured self doesn’t have to visit the doctor—it certainly tests your creativity and ability to improvise. Given our situation, you can probably imagine how resentful I can get when I feel God asking me to give to my neighbors.

How are we supposed to give to others when we’re stretched to the limit ourselves?

At first, we toyed with the idea of stopping our tithes, but even with our creative justification skills we were unable to reason that God only wants a portion of our excess wealth.

But that made it easy to fall into the next trap: feeling that our tithe was more than adequate and we had no need to give anywhere else. Let’s face it—tossing that ten percent into the offering plate can sometimes make our meals much leaner. However, God shook us out of complacency with the example of the woman in Luke 21 who gave the two pennies she had, which Jesus said was a greater gift than the vast amounts the wealthy gave because she gave all she had to give.

Don’t get me wrong. While I believe that sometimes God will ask you to give over and beyond your means, I also believe that, generally, we are to be prudent stewards of whatever we have, be it much or little. So when I’m barely scraping by and a college kid asks me for $150 for groceries, chances are I’m not going to fork over more money for groceries than we spend in two weeks. However, I do have recipes that make surprising amounts of food for the little money it costs. So I’ll invite my hungry friend over for dinner and pack up some leftovers.

But what about the church I attend? It’s going through some pretty rough financial times, and as much as we’d love to give more, we simply can’t. Handing over a recipe won’t do them much good. However, the church also runs a deli and coffeehouse during the week. Although I can’t give money, I can volunteer at the deli so they pay one fewer worker.
After all, your money cannot be that important to God. While it may be what makes the world go round, wealth is a hindrance. Jesus said it’s actually much more difficult for the wealthy to enter the kingdom of God (Luke 18:24), so why do we feel as though we would be better Christians if we could just make more money to donate to His cause?

In the end, it comes down to trusting God and His provision. While you can’t sit on your couch waiting for the mailman to deliver paychecks you didn’t earn, trust God to take care of you if you take advantage of the opportunities He gives. The main reason my husband and I are reluctant to give is we’d rather save those few extra dollars as insurance against some future catastrophe. And we do save what we can, but not if it interferes with our tithes or if we feel someone else needs it more.

My point is, rather than mourning or feeling guilty that you can’t give as much money as you’d like, find ways you can give. When you don’t have two quarters to rub together, find other ways to help. Lend a loving ear, a helping hand, the time you’re spending in front of a video game console. Give as God gave to you, and trust that He will continue to find ways to provide for you.

Society defines success by day-to-day jobs. And that’s how society judges us—by our job, our career, our income, our wealth. The more cash and objects we acquire, the more we are honored. Having a paying job is seen as primary; accomplishing something meaningful is secondary. Work has become more than a vehicle to support the family unit. Jobs have become status symbols. They have become institutions that delegate status by their very existence. Many are as devoted to them as to religions. Lost souls are seeking for something to give them lasting happiness. 

In the world’s view, money and career equals this happiness. Does it really? Does it really bring a true happiness? The pleasure that does ensue is a passing, synthetic happiness that masquerades as joy. However, real joy is not an actual result. Joy is only found in God, not in riches. The rich man who trusts in his riches for meaning is chasing after the wind. Jesus realized the additional hardship rich people had. He said it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God (Matthew 19:24). We continually seek after what is enough.

There is never enough. There is never a lasting contentment in anything. The only way to be even closely content in this world is to realize we’ll never be content with anything in it. We must realize that we do not belong to it. The burning, incessant desire we feel will never be entirely quenched until we enter heaven.

A lasting satisfaction is never reached on this plane. Eventually you are dissatisfied with everything. Why is that? The simple answer: We are all members of the human race. I ate breakfast this morning. I thoroughly enjoyed it. However, I know that satisfaction won’t last. In a couple of hours I will be hungry again and the cycle will repeat. After we have more, we want more and better more.

Kids yearn for new toys; not long after getting a desired toy they grow tired of it. Before you know it, it is lying forgotten and forlorn on the floor and they want something else. This is the cycle that continues throughout our lives. We are all grown-up children. We constantly want new toys. We want that exercise machine, that new car, that bigger house, that gadget that looks so enticing on the infomercial. More will never be enough. We get more, then we want more more, then more more more, then more more more more, and so on.

Welcome to life in the world. We have a choice: we can rush toward God or we can rush toward the world. If we choose God, we choose eternal satisfaction; if we choose worldliness, we choose temporal satisfaction. In essence, the temporal satisfaction of worldliness is an insatiable desire. The Bible has several meanings for the word world: the earth, the nations, and fallen mankind. The fallen mankind aspect is what we are referring to here. 

All men apart from God are failures—true success in life comes from God (Psalm 20:4; 1 Samuel 18:14; 2 Kings 18:7). Success is a blessing He bestows. David prayed for such a blessing. And he received such a blessing. David and Hezekiah are both described as being successful at whatever they undertook because God was with them. They were not successful because they were rich and powerful. The success here was defined by a full trust in God.

Lasting contentment via success comes only through seeking after the everlasting food of heaven. Working is a necessity. It is necessary to earn money so we can live. However, Jesus said that our whole intent should not be set on earthly food that spoils; it should be on heavenly food that satisfies for all eternity (John 6:27).

Working for God and the furtherance of His kingdom—that is success. There are those of us who work the night shift, but most of us work during the day. Jesus used this analogy to explain how we are to labor for Him (John 9:4). Jesus was specifically talking to His disciples to explain their need to work while He, the Light, was still shining in the world. His light is still shining in the world. It shines through us. We are to work for His glory until the end of day (time) when the judgment will come. In the daylight of that night (the end), each person’s life and work will be judged for what it is to God, not for what has been to men (1 Corinthians 3:12-13).

Let’s go back to the birds of Matthew 6. Flocks of flying birds are such a mysterious thing to behold. For the past few weeks there have been enormous flocks circling here and there about my town. The dense flocks move as one entity. I wonder: Who are the leaders? Why do they move when they do? What brings them here? How do they know when to land? Such questions would be trivial to the birds. They have found true success; they do not worry about these things. They trust only in the Lord who gives them what they need. That is true success—to find joy and satisfaction in what the Lord provides. True success is not being unhappy with what the Lord has not given you. It is the curse of man to long for more. We will always long for it; we will never possess it. We must come to understand we will never be content with this world.