Budgeting for giving

If giving is better than receiving, why doesn’t it feel like it?

Jesus himself said that it is, “more blessed to give than to receive.” I don’t know about you, but when I have been strapped for cash and needed to buy someone a birthday gift – it didn’t FEEL like much of a blessing.

I hated the feeling of being torn with what to do with my money. I wanted to be a generous giver, but when the $20 in my wallet was being pulled in 4 different directions, it made it difficult to be exceedingly generous like I wanted to be.

I am not sure where I got the idea from, but we had a very basic budget at the time and decided to create an ING account specifically for gifts and giving. This account was to be the source of all of our birthday and Christmas presents and any other giving we did.

I thought it was a good idea until we started doing it. Then I realized that it was an absolute GREAT idea and wish we had started it earlier. It instantly added so much more fun to the giving process, because the money was just sitting there waiting to be spent on others. It wasn’t getting pulled in numerous directions like it was previously. It’s purpose had been clearly defined.

Christians are called to give

We have the opportunity to give into God’s kingdom. We have the privilege of being able to give to help people. It really is a privilege and an opportunity. God doesn’t need us. He has an endless supply of finances – He can get the money where it needs to be. But He allows us the chance to be used by Him in the process, knowing that WE will benefit from being used.

As we get a better understanding of this truth, it helps us break free from our own selfishness.

God really wants to bless us!! He set the system up that it is kind of counter-intuitive – we give away, and as a result we get more.  As we give, it is given back to us in a greater measure. The Bible makes it clear that there will always be seedtime and harvest. To the measure that we sow, we will reap.

Biblical giving

After we started to get an understanding about Biblical giving – we were faced with the same challenges that everyone else has. You want to give, but it is hard to find money to give, because it is all already being spent on other important things.

It was for this reason that we had to start budgeting for our giving. The Bible says that we are to “discipline ourselves for the purpose of godliness” and that “we should not make any provision for the flesh.”

It is crucial that we set up NATURAL processes and habits in order to fulfill the SPIRITUAL things that we are called to do.

In this case taking money right off the top of our income to budget for giving were the natural steps that helped fulfill what God wanted us to do. It wasn’t enough that we wanted to give, or even that we asked God to help us give. We had to take natural steps (that were His will) to fulfill what He wanted us to do.

Bottom Line: Budgeting for giving was just a simple step that helped us fulfill what we were called to do.

A few things that budgeting for gifts did for us:

• Assuming we were adding enough to the account, we rarely (if ever) would need to try to find money to purchase gifts.
• It encouraged more generosity because money was sitting in the account just waiting to be spent. We agreed that it would ONLY be used for giving purposes, therefore we might as well spend it because that was what it was there for.
• It is a wonderful feeling to have money available for the sole purpose of blessing others. It makes it really EASY and FUN to give.
• It is great to have cash always available to pay for Birthday gifts, but it is even more exciting as you increase your budgeted amount. When it gets to the point that there is so much money in the account that you have to start looking for people to bless. I want to get to the point where the account is overflowing and we have to work hard to try to give it all away!! I can’t think of anything more fun!!

Before we started budgeting for gifts I never had a thorough understanding of what Jesus meant that it was more blessed to give than to receive. The main reason was that giving created a negative side effect on my finances. Since my groceries and gifts were purchased from money in the same pot, I was always torn between my desire to give and my desire to eat.

Now, instead of thinking about how a gift was going to cause me to get fewer groceries, I now am free to focus on blessing the other person rather than my grocery list.

For more inspiration check out how to make a budget and what the bible says about giving.