What is The Giving Challenge?

For a while now, I’ve had something on my heart that I wanted to do. I’ve been praying about this a lot. I learned a long time ago that my prayers needed to reflect the heart and desires of God—not my heart and desires. Once I started praying for what He wanted, according to His Word, it was like a prayer revolution! Well, God loves people. He put it in my heart to help people, and that’s what I’ve been trying to do. That’s what I pray every day: Lord, show me how I can help people today. If that means showing my readers where to find a great deal on groceries or coffee or Christmas presents, and that’s how He wants to use me, I’m all for it! For a while now, however, I have really felt Him urging me to get this community of readers together and do something BIG.

Can you spare $10 this month?

God just laid it on my heart that I needed to challenge you, my readers, with the idea of giving out of your need. I’ve got to admit: I’ve been nervous about asking you about this. I know that for most of us, money is tight. January came around and with it new tax rates, rising gas prices, and we’re going to see prices rising at the grocery store on red meat, chicken, and dairy products very soon. People are seeing less money coming in, more money going out—So why now?

I honestly believe that the Lord’s timing is perfect. Really. I can look back at my life and see evidence of that over and over again. This is not the time for people of faith to pull back with our giving. In fact, I believe that now is when the Lord wants us to trust Him with our budgets because when people are more desperately in need, that’s when we are to give more.

Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing. (James 1:2-4)

We show you a lot of ways that you can easily save $10 every month:

• Coupons
• Daily Deals
• Money-saving recipes
• Freebies – eBooks, music, kids activities, and more

Squeezing another $10 out of your budget may not be painless, and it will require some effort, but it can be done. And I understand that can be a huge amount for some people. I know especially for people on a fixed income that $10 may not be doable. But if that’s too much, then just give $5. On the other hand, if $10 is no big deal for you, then how about giving $20? We are a community—and since most of us can’t give a huge amount of money to help others on our own, together, we can!

So here’s what I want to do. Every month, I’m going to introduce you to a ministry that needs our help. This year, we’re going to meet people who are involved in feeding orphans, putting an end to sex trafficking, helping troubled kids here in the US, and so much more. Each ministry has given us a project that they need help with. Can you imagine if our Faithful Provisions community could make a difference in 12 different ministries this year? That’s something none of us could do by ourselves. But together, we can.

Here’s the bottom line truth of this whole project: I believe that we are going to be able to accomplish a lot as a community. I believe that our small change will be their big difference. But we are the ones who are going to get the real blessing because we will be partnering with the Lord. After all, He doesn’t need us—He allows us to be part of His plan.

We need each and every one of you to help. Don’t think your amount is too small. God uses every part to make up the body, every person has a role to play.

Are you going to choose to partner with the Lord and say yes when He calls? Whether that’s a gift of $5 or $10 or maybe not even money—maybe it’s a mission trip or dropping off food at a local food bank. But we want to make you are aware of what other people have done when the Lord asked them to step up. I think you might be surprised when you meet the people that are the heads of these ministries. They are very unassuming, everyday people—but there is one difference between them and other people: They said yes when God called them, and the Lord used them.

The Lord can use you too. Over the months as we present the opportunities, we want to hear your stories. How has the Lord used you? Adoption, sex trafficking, clean water, child sponsorship—He doesn’t call everyone to the same thing. Everyone is different, but He does call. Will you be quiet enough and still enough to hear His voice and see where He is calling? That is my prayer for you.

Stay tuned as tomorrow we present this month’s Giving Challenge!