The World/the Devil strikes again!!

My Church is considering buying a building as we currently meet in a school and feel that we need to be more visible in our community. In order to do this we as a congregation are having to make big steps in faith as we do not have the monetary resources at the moment. For this reason we are having a gift day at Church where we are going to give our money to God's purposes for us in our area. So far so good...I fully support this - the Church is the people and if we want to see God's love and salvation spreading we have to make some sacrifices, be that time, effort or money. Here comes the issue...

I have been praying to God to ask what He wants me to do, to ask what amount He thinks is possible for me to give away (even if I am not sure that it is - I have decided to trust Him). We had settled on an amount, having looked at my finances etc...and all was good. Until I started to feel that the world was playing against me and trying to make it as hard as possible to give that amount. Since deciding the figure I have had a very minor car prang (there's £100 excess straight away), then my glasses were broken at work (looking at around £50 in the least to be repaired)...followed by my watch falling off my wrist somewhere between my home and Dudley!! Add to this Car Tax and saving for my new place...this giving thing is starting to be hard!!

I caught myself thinking, 'well, maybe I can halve the money that I was going to give, as I have had so many things pulling on the purse strings lately...'
What a dangerous path to go down! That is the path of the devil, of idolatry (money is more important) and simply not God's path for me (I also think that it is a little rude of me to have these long conversations with God, take up His time and then flat out ignore His advice!)So I stopped my wanderings down that way and turned back to God.

He alone knows what is good for me, and yes, the giving will now be a little more sacrificial than first thought but that's the point...going for God isn't easy, or else everyone would do it without a need to address the real issues in their lives and it's not that I think my faith means my life has to be hard or I am not a good Christian...certainly not, that's not what God is about. It's simply that I know that there is little point in storing up earthly goods - as the Bible says, the moths will have them!

In reality, I live a blessed life, I have a roof over my head, clothes on my back, food in my stomach and a soul that has been reclaimed by the Father...the money that I will be giving away is 'disposable income' - rather than dispose of it in worldly things where the economy just looks rocky, I would much prefer to give into the Kingdom of God...not because God tells me I have to, but simply because I want to.

All that said though - the Enemy is a tricky little dude...thank goodness I am now starting to see how little he is compared to God.