Learning to Trust the Lord

A few years after my wife and I met, we started to attend Radiant. We quickly joined a Marriage Group, as we needed guidance and a community that would be a good influence on our struggling marriage. It wasn't long before we heard several mentions of what tithing had done or the other married couples in our group. Not knowing what else to do, we decided to join in on the idea. However, giving 10% of our Gross was out of the question as we lacked trust in the Lord.

Throughout the next several years, we were lukewarm with our giving and gave 10% of our Net or what we thought we could afford at the time. Over the years of our ebb and flow giving, we gained a decent amount of traction financially. I continued to work for the same company as I currently do, and the pay raises have been moderate and fair, allowing us to just make ends meet.

Debt was a swear word that just continued to pile up and seemed unending, so we decided to make the hard decision to file for bankruptcy. However, our situation wasn't getting any better. Something had to give.

In October of 2021, we were blessed with our youngest daughter, but it was a shell shock. As soon as she was born, she was taken to U of M for heart complications.

Earlier in the pregnancy, we decided to bring prayer, worship, and words of affirmation into our birth plan. Little did we know, this was a direction from God, as what came after the birth was devastating. Instead of an attitude of panic, we quickly turned to what we had been practicing for the past three months. This not only pulled us through the toughest journey in our lives, but also brought a trust of the Lord into our hearts.

Fourteen days later, we were able to bring our baby girl home. Still confused, grateful, and a heap full of other emotions, we began our "God will honor whatever we give" campaign until Pastor Lee spoke on tithing one Sunday morning.

It was January 9th, 2022, that Pastor Lee taught the sermon of the "First Tenth." In his sermon, he challenged anyone who wasn't to start giving the first tenth of their Gross income and see if God would bless them after 90 days of faithfully tithing. My wife and I discussed and prayed over the idea and had no reason to doubt God's promise. However, we didn't know what would come some 85 days later.

“God has, without a doubt, come through on His promise.”

I received a substantial pay raise for no logical reason that put us in a financial situation that was more than we could ask for. A week later, we received our taxes back, which was surprising as over the years, they had been garnished. We found out the garnishment was canceled for no reason (we didn't ask questions). Our taxes were so numerous that we were able to set aside some savings to pay off debt.

Since then, the blessings have continued to overflow. Over the next several months, I was given the position that I have desired for the past ten years at work, and it was quickly modified into an even better one. We are now able to contribute more to our 401K, and we can provide for our growing family with few financial sacrifices. We are now able to start the enrollment process for our eldest daughter to join Gymnastics, and for the first time ever, we were able to buy our Christmas gifts early and adopt a couple of families in need. Another huge blessing was when the insurance companies resolved who would be paying for our daughter's medical bills that were rapidly coming in, resulting in a small fraction for us to pay.

God has, without a doubt, come through on His promise, and the thought of reducing the amount of our tithe is but a mere utterance of the past. The joy that tithing brings to our hearts is enormous and continues to grow as we see what our tithe, alongside everyone else who tithes faithfully, does for our community and the other projects that Radiant is planning.

Do you feel your story can serve as a hope and inspiration to others? Share your story at mystory@radiant.church.