A Cheerful Giver

By: Gary Brown

2 Corinthians 9: 6&7

Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

God let me know quite clearly that tithing was the only obstacle standing between me and the opportunity to own a successful business of my own.

Three years ago I quit my job as an insurance agent for a large insurance company to open my own independent agency. Terminating my employment voluntarily was not an idea or decision to take lightly. Our family has all the normal household bills and two kids. I had been employed by this firm for over seven years and my income was dependable and stable. I had brought under management several hundreds of clients and leaving this job meant walking away from all that hard work and stability; so I prayed.

I have prayed for many things throughout the years. Some prayers seemingly went unanswered, for whatever reason. Other prayers took months or years before God answered. However, while praying over this important career decision, God spoke quickly and decisively to me.

It was as if God wanted to leave me no room for doubt. In my prayer time God reassured me that his blessed hand would be upon me and my business – on one condition: we must tithe. Up to that point our family had been tithing on a “hit and miss” basis. We would usually only give if there was enough money left at the end of the month, and you know how that usually goes.

From day one since we opened our independent insurance agency our family has tithed at least ten percent of all our income. In the early going, there was not much to tithe on, but we did. We have remained faithful and true to our agreement with God and he has remained more than faithful to us. Business has blossomed in some incredible ways and my income after three years is nearly equal to what it had been after seven years in the corporate job. While doing our taxes last year our CPA commented that we tithed more than half his clients combined. Praise God!

TAKE THE CHALLENGE: Have you taken time recently to prayerfully discern how much you should be tithing?