How Can We Still Give During Tough Times?

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My first job after college paid peanuts, as do most first full-time positions. After paying for rent, my auto loan, food, and other living expenses, my bank account often hovered at dangerously low levels. Which meant I had little cash to give to charitable causes and my church, yet I still gave. When my husband had several months-long bouts with unemployment, we had to scale back our charitable monetary gifts for a time, but we still gave.

During those tough financial times, I often thought about the parable Jesus told in Luke 21:1-4 about the widow and her small offering: “Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box, and he saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. And he said, ‘Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on’” (ESV).

I don’t think this meant we were to give our last dollars to God, but I think it does mean we are to have a willing heart and a creative mind when it came to holding onto the things of this world, including what’s in our bank account. Before I give you some concrete ways to give when you’re going through a rough patch, let’s first talk about four reasons why giving is important for us to do as followers of Christ.

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