Many years ago, Hannah and I attended a church in Tulsa whose pastor had formerly been an itinerant preacher. If you’re not familiar with this term, it means that he traveled from church to church to speak as a guest. At the end of his sermons, after the congregation had collected their regular tithes and offerings, they would take what was known as a “love offering,” which was a show of support for him. One night, he ministered at a fairly large church and the crowd gathered was extremely blessed by his message. When they collected the “love offering” that evening, the outpouring was so great that the preacher and his wife, who had just had a baby, were overwhelmed. However, once the service was over and everyone had gone home, the senior pastor approached them and told them that the amount that had come in was more than the church could afford to give them when there were so many needs within the congregation. With that, he handed them a hundred dollars, which he asserted would give them enough gas to get to the next town, and sent them on their way. As he shared this story with us, my heart grew angry at the hearing; however, as a 19-year-old kid, what I will never forget is the lesson they chose to extract from that painful circumstance. Rather than stay angry about it, they decided that it was God’s money the pastor had held back, and they asked Him to use everything offered that night to do great things for His Kingdom, regardless of whose hands it was in! 

My friend, I share this story to remind you that while not everything in life is fair, God is always good! He is the source of every monetary and spiritual blessing, and before anything was given to us, it first belonged to Him. When we maintain a posture of humility and live from a place of understanding that He is the supplier of all of our needs, our hearts find a peace that is unshakable. Jesus’ love offerings to us are new every day, and they never stop flowing, even if they can’t be perceived.