Calculating Faith

With many losing their jobs, pensions, equity and investments it makes sense to sit down with our finances and calculate how to protect what funds we have left. But what does that say about our faith? Admittedly, there is a balance between being good stewards of our resources and being generous with our resources; with calculating how to be safe and with placing faith in God who is our provider. How can we be generous and wise when things are rough financially? Is it possible to become even more generous when things are tight when we look at our checkbooks? Certainly many (some reading this now) 'calculated' and took out equity loans to buy things or pay off other debt. For most, that has not turned out to be such a good calculation. Certainly there are more opportunities today to bless people than in many years. There are people who need assistance with their electric bills, car insurance, groceries or small home repairs. If we choose to be generous, many seeds of the Gospel can be sown into lives we could have never touched before these difficult times. So how about you? Are you living by faith or by calculation? What does that say about where your faith is focused? How about your house church? Have you begun talking about being more generous to meet the needs of friends and strangers? What is Jesus saying to you and to us? I doubt it is to calculate more.