How do you give back to others?
God calls each of us to fill the gap in order to spread His Gospel to all parts of the world. Like Esther, every believer must decide either to be used of God or to be bypassed and allow another to be chosen instead. Giving so that God’s servants can take His message throughout the world, like tithing, is an outward material expression of a deeper spiritual commitment and is an indication of a willing and obedient heart. “Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:7).
Funding the Great Commission
We have enough money in North America to fund all the Christian work in Ethiopia and Eritrea if the people of God would just give. Although the desire to give may be there, most Christians in America are so caught up in making more money and buying bigger and better things, or paying for the things that they already have, that they have lost focus of the unsaved world.
In essence, the Gospel has literally become shackled because money needed for worldwide ministry is tied up in personal debt and large monthly payments. “The one on whom seed was sown among the thorns, this is the man who hears the word, and the worry of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful”(Matthew 13:22).
According to the Global Evangelization Movement in 2001 there were 212 million Americans who identify with Christianity. This represents approximately 660,000 households. The combined household income of these Christians in 2001 was approximately $27 billion. Of the 660,000 households, roughly 120,000 gave to missions in 2001.
Since 2000, approximately $39 million is given annually to help support 285,000 American missionaries, service agencies, native pastors and Christian workers, tent-making missionaries and mission organizations, humanitarian missions efforts, and sending organizations.
This is an average of about $300 per household annually.
