First Fruit Friday - Trusting God with Our Treasure
Last week during our Made Whole monthly meeting, we talked about how to budget, the importance of it and how we can use budgeting to accomplish our personal goals. But, as with everything we do at Seneca, we look at things through the eyes of the purpose of God in our lives and what the Bible says about it. In our discussion we talked about things that we need to consider when we deal with our finances:
1) God must remain FIRST.
“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money” Matthew 6:24.
2) We must first be trustworthy with the gifts God has already given us.
“Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So, if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?” Luke 16:10-11
3) We are called to be good stewards with what He is about to give us by giving to the poor (Proverbs 22:9) and tithing to His Church.
“Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house. ‘Test Me in this,’ says the Lord Almighty, ‘and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of Heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it’” Malachi 3:10.
(*Note: This is the only place in the Bible where God asks us to “test Him” — and it is with our finances!)
Thinking about this third point just made me think about all who support Seneca in a sacrificial way. Being prepared financially in these difficult times when inflation is very high is a concern for every household, but at the same time, we need to recognize the importance of supporting those who are in the frontlines doing God’s work in our community.
In the past month we also have received donations of baby items from 5 former and current clients, who instead of selling these items, decided to donate them to other moms. This means so much, because these moms in their own struggle are thinking about their fellow moms, and this is the kind of love that comes from God.
Thank you so much to our supporters - everyone who donates their time, talents, items and treasure so we can continue with our mission. We know God sees you and He is pleased, and He will reward you enormously for your generosity.