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What is Faith Promise
A faith promise offering is a promise made, through faith in God’s provision, to contribute a certain amount over a one-year period. It is a modern way to describe how the New Testament churches gave to people in distant places. According to II Corinthians 8 and 9, a faith promise offering has several characteristics:
• It is an offering over and above local church support.
• It is given cheerfully.
• It is given in faith.
In II Corinthians 9, Paul uses the picture of a farmer who reaps what he sows, believing God will prosper the amount of seed he has sown. Paul also emphasizes that we should be willing givers: “Don't give reluctantly or in response to pressure. For God loves the person who gives cheerfully.” (II Corinthians 9:7)
How Does Faith Promise Work?
God honors the faith commitment of a Christian by making His grace abound: “And God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others.” (II Corinthians 9:8) God shows this grace in many ways.
Sometimes God gives special grace through new opportunities such as overtime work, moonlighting, or increased business profits. Often God will allow a sensitive Christian with a burden for the world to work creatively and diligently in order to provide additional revenue for missions.
God often gives his people the special grace of discipline. This involves a change of lifestyle. Actually, everyone operates on this principle when they deny themselves certain things in order to spend their money on things they consider more important. The sensitive Christian invests in the eternal rather than the temporal, choosing to build God’s kingdom rather than their own.
Sometimes God supplies His grace in unusual ways. In response to prayer, God still does the spectacular and unexpected.
How Much Should I Give?
C.S. Lewis said it well in Mere Christianity: “I do not believe one can settle how much we ought to give. I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare. In other words, if our expenditure on comforts, luxuries, amusements, etc., is up to the standard common among those with the same income as our own, we are probably giving way too little.”
From Your Church Can Excel in Global Giving by Donald A. Jensen (Wheaton, IL: Churchmart, 1994
Scripture from The New Living Translation © 1996 by Tyndale Charitable Trust.
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