What is faith promise? “Faith Promise is a promise made to God that you will endeavour to give to global missions a certain amount of money which you do not presently have, based on the confidence that God will provide and enable you to do so.”
So you will be trusting God for something you do not now have, promising to give that amount of money to missions in dependence on Him as He provides. You need to know that Faith Promise is the only means by which world missions is financially funded through Christ Community. Nothing from the General Budget is applied to world missions. Only those funds that are designated “Faith Promise” are available for Christ Community to use in global missions.
Download the 10 day devotional “Stewardship and Faith Promise Giving“, or read on.
Faith Promise giving is Biblical
To be sure, Scripture teaches us to give �by sight� as stewards taking a portion of the Lord�s resources given to us to manage and returning them to Him and His work. But also, Scripture goes on to teach that we are not to stop there but to trust God to supply more of His resources through us, resources that we cannot currently see. It seems to me that this is the thrust of 2 Corinthians 9:1-9 and especially verses 7 and 8: �Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. �
Faith Promise giving helps people grow in faith
God wants us to learn to exercise faith – to trust God to act powerfully through us. When the crowd needed feeding, Jesus said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do� (John 6:5,6). Jesus was seeking to lead the disciples to realize and appropriate the resource they had in Him to minister to a needy world.
When they brought the lunch to Jesus, they asked, “…but how far will this go among so many?� But even that “little,” in the hands of Jesus, was more than enough to feed the crowd and to have much left over. Faith Promise giving is an excellent way to �walk by faith.�
In 2 Corinthians 9:6 we see that reaping is in proportion to our sowing…sparingly or bountifully. Jesus once said, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” “Yes, Lord,” they replied. “According to your faith will it be done to you” (Matthew 9:28-29).
How might God enable us to meet our Faith Promise?
- Reordering our priorities. By applying better principles of stewardship, managing what we already have, and adjusting our priorities to reflect our desire to see the gospel among all peoples, we can generate money. This would include living more simply and so freeing money; evaluating our lifestyle to consider ways to decrease unnecessary personal expenses.
- A person determines he really doesn�t need a new car this year and frees money he would have used for car payments.
- A person determines to purchase half as many coffees as he normally would, freeing up money.
- Developing creative ways of generating extra income to be used toward a faith promise.
- A family has a garage sale to eliminate unneeded items around the house, which generates extra money.
- Housemates decide to put on a special dinner to raise money for their Faith Promise.
- Unexpected funds do come into our lives, but this is a rarity and should not be the primary expected way that we are looking for God to act.
- The ATO sends an unexpected refund.
- A letter comes with a special financial gift.
If you have never made a Faith Promise, let me encourage you to do so this year. It would be great to see every person who considers Christ Community their home to make a Faith Promise. Let�s walk by faith together!
