FAITH PROMISE WHAT IS IT?
Perhaps you are like some folks that I have met. They have heard about Faith Promise Giving, but do not understand it or are skeptical of it. Unfortunately, we live in a day and time when the ways of getting money from people are varied and imaginative. However, God is not looking for the gullible. Rather, He has chosen to do his work through his people. So, let me assure you first of all that Faith Promise giving is a Biblical method of giving to missions.
In order to understand Faith Promise Missions, we will first of all have to understand what it is not.
FAITH PROMISE GIVING IS NOT THE TITHE. The tithe is the first tenth of our income and belongs to God. We are to give it at our local church. This is known as “storehouse tithing”. God warns us that to not give the tithe is to actually steal from God. “Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed Me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.” Malachi 3:8 No, the tithe is the Lord’s and we give him nothing when we pay the tithe.
FAITH PROMISE GIVING IS NOT SACRIFICIAL GIVING. We pay our tithe but we give our offerings. Thereare many needs within the local church that are met by this kind of giving. Building fund, new hymn books, paving the parking lot, etc. are often funded by God’s people as they give in a sacrificial manner. Thank God for all those who will give to these needs when the flesh would otherwise devour it. God blesses sacrificial giving. You cannot outgive God! Incidentally, it is also possible to steal from God by withholding a sacrificial gift. If God tells you to give it and you don’t, you have robbed God. Remember Malachi 3:8? God said they had robbed him in tithes AND OFFERINGS.
FAITH PROMISE GIVING IS NOT A PLEDGE Faith promise giving differs from a pledge in this way. If you make a pledge to give a certain amount of money, and then do not give it, someone may eventually come to you to collect it. That will never happen with Faith Promise Giving. Why? Because Faith Promise is entirely different.
Let us go to God’s Word to see the Biblical model for Faith Promise Giving. In I Corinthians 16:1-3 the Apostle Paul laid out the pattern by which the church at Corinth was to give. Let me remind you here that Paul wrote by Divine inspiration. We believe that these scriptures certainly are to apply to us today also. From Paul’s language here, we conclude that this church made a promise to send a financial gift to the needs of believers in Jerusalem. A careful reading of II Corinthians 8:10-11 will reveal that they did not keep this promise. During the year between their making the promise and Paul writing to remind them that they had not yet performed it, Paul had told other churches about their promise and it had inspired these other churches to give a Faith Promise too. The church at Thessalonica (I Thess. 1:8) and the church at Philippi (Phil. 4:14-16) had both made a promise AND PERFORMED IT. For the church at Corinth talk had been cheap. You will recall that there were many problems within the Corinthian church. Apparently, among other things, they were not very careful about carrying through with promises. Now Paul reminds them that this promise needed to be honored. Read II Cor. 8:1-12. In verse one, the churches of Macedonia include those at Philippi and Thessalonica. In vs. 2, notice that they were in great trial and deep poverty. How then, were they able to give a Faith Promise? The answer to that question is the key to understanding Faith Promise Giving. Vs. 5 tells us that they “first gave their own selves to the Lord,”. Once they had given themselves to the Lord, they were in a position to do something great for God. In other words, God was going to do something great THROUGH them. You see, they had given according to their power but now God was going to enable them to give “BEYOND THEIR POWER”. vs.3. Do you see that? Once God had THEM, they could be trusted with money to give back to Him. They gave of what they had, then God met their needs. Isn’t God good? How else can Christians give when it already takes everything they have to make ends meet? We can’t, unless we, like the churches of Macedonia, learn to give beyond our power. The church at Corinth had obviously not learned this, at least by the time that Paul wrote II Corinthians. Which of these churches do you want your church to be most like?
Sometimes Mission Conference speakers will tell Christians that if they make a faith promise and God does not give it to them, then they are under no obligation to give it. Let’s examine that line of thinking for a minute. During a Faith Promise Missions Conference church members are asked to pray about a specific amount to give each week or each month during the next year. Only God knows what this figure is. As you pray diligently about this and God impresses you with an amount, you fill out your Faith Promise Card and place it in the offering plate. Now think with me. If God told you the amount to write down and you did, thus promising to give it by faith, can He be trusted to deliver back into your hands enough to meet your needs? Of course He can! He has promised to meet our needs. If I have made a Faith Promise, and then give it by faith, God promises to meet my need. Phil.4:19. Faith Promise is, of course, far different than making a new bill for something I want to buy on credit. This is a promise to God to be used of Him. He wants to use us. By faith I give to God FIRST and He then supplies my need. This is not giving to get! This is giving to get, so that I can give. Do you see the difference?
I have met people who are opposed to faith promise giving. They are always people who are not giving to missions by faith. Some are folks that have tried it but have never really understood it. I do not know a person that truly understands it, who gives by faith and does not wholeheartedly endorse it.
There will be Christians who will say, “I will give to missions when I have it in my hand to give”, just as there will be churches that will say, “When we pay off our buildings we will get involved in missions in a big way”. This, of course, is good. You may give according to your power in this way and God will bless you. But this is not giving beyond your power. Can you not see that to give beyond your power, as the churches of Macedonia did, requires for God to get involved in your giving. What a blessing!
Faith Promise Giving is for those who dare to trust God for a specific amount on a regular basis. It is exciting to watch God work and it is an adventure into living by faith. May you discover God’s best for you!
By: Brother Gary Forney
