Giving, Prayer and Fasting

I left this comment on a recent post but thought more people would see it with a new post.

I heard at Catalyst this week the basic plan for sound financial planning is as follows:

Give to God
Give to Savings
Spend the Rest

To expand on that:

Give to God - be a percentage giver - a planned giver to God. God gives us 100% of what we have and according to some we are to give Him back 10%. But pick your percentage - 3%, 5%, 10% or more. My home starts with 10% of our gross and give more as the Lord lays it on our hearts throughout the year.

Give to Savings - be a percentage saver as mentioned above in giving to God. In my home we have tried to save as much as we give to God so we start with 10% and increase it as money allows.

Spend the Rest - the remaining 80% or less (minus taxes of course) is ours to spend, wisely of course.

Many feel they cannot afford to follow this pattern, I would suggest that we cannot afford to not follow it.

I heard a sermon on the flight home from Georgia today on Matthew 6 that I will use in the near future talking about giving, prayer and fasting. Basically is asked the question - the same question I asked recently about praying to God, if you really believed you were praying to God you would have a hard time getting up, not finding the time. If you really believed that you were giving to honor God, praying to God and fasting to be drawn closer to God and that God rewards your offerings to Him, you would be doing them more and more each day. Think about it my friends.