Asking for your money isn’t as easy as it looks.
- It’s embarrassing.
- It makes me anxious.
- Requires constant acts of bold faith.
- Is super humbling.
- Reminds me that I don’t have control over this.
But, I ask anyway. Why? Because the Lord wants me to.
The first time the Lord introduced me to the World Race was a few months before graduating college, in 2015. Right from the beginning, this journey felt right to me. Dying to myself, my fears, and my expectations to grow in intimacy with Christ is something that I’ve always desired. I also have a servant’s heart, and the World Race seemed like the right way to merge those two pillars of my character.
But – there’s one issue. I don’t have $18,000. Or anywhere close to it. Fast forward 3 years later… now I’m signed up for the race! Aaaaaaand I still don’t have $18,000. Crickets.
When I first signed up for this monster, I kept thinking:
“Ok Nicole, you have ____ months until the race. Prepare for impact. Prepare to have your world vision rocked. You got this. It’s not happening until August 2018. You still have time.”
HA!! Guess what? The surrender part that I told you about is already happening. The dying to my selfish ways part. That’s already begun. Asking for your money isn’t as easy as it looks. Here’s a few lessons I’ve learned so far:
Lesson One: My success in fundraising is not driven by my own labor.
Psalm 127: “Unless the Lord builds a house, the work of the builders is useless. Unless the Lord protects a city, guarding it with sentries will do no good. It is useless for you to work so hard from early morning until late at night, anxiously working for food to eat; for God gives rest to his loved ones.”
I’d rather be used as a vessel for what God wants for me than to do it my way. My best effort to achieve my fundraising goals is worse than God’s worst.
Lesson Two: I can’t do this alone.
Proverbs 30: 8-9: “Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’ Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.”
In this verse, we see the speaker not wanting poverty, nor riches. You see, dependence and intimacy with the Father is the root & driving factor here. Richness and poverty throws off that entire balance.
This is exemplified through the act of donation. When we give away something that we are in great need of, we acknowledge that our life & resources are not our own. We release the sense of ownership of them, and in doing so, the giver is accepting the nature of the resource.
Both giving and receiving creates a spiritual humility that is a key step in each party coming closer into intimacy with God – and acknowledging that it was all His to begin with.
The truth is: we, and what we have, are not our own. It is His design that we rely on each other, and through that partnership, we may be closer to our Father.
Acknowledging these two lessons is key to accomplishing this task. It’s also important that you, the giver, realize the significance of giving. What you and I have is not a fruit of our labor. It is a gift from God. Harboring our resources for selfish gain will not “pay off” as these resources were not our own to begin with. Both giving and receiving creates a spiritual humility that is a key step in each party coming closer into intimacy with God – and acknowledging that it was all His to begin with.
To my own demise, I have been learning these lessons – the hard way. Dying to myself, my fears, and my expectations to grow in intimacy with Christ is something that I’ve always desired. And I’m doing that, step-by-step.
I invite you to prayerfully consider joining me in learning these lessons.
Luke 6:38
“Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”
Proverbs 11: 24-25
“One person gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty. A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed.”
Regardless of whether you mobilize me as a missionary, or someone else, giving your hard earned and much needed resources will allow you to experience the blessings of not only giving, but also holding a stake in this journey I’m about to take. When you give, you will receive.
