Stewardship Testimony - La Nora Holcombe
This testimony was given by our Stewardship Ministry Chair, La Nora Holcombe, on Sunday, October 10th.
In the Stewardship Packet for 2022 that will be mailed to you this week you will find a Pledge card that has the following Bible verse from the prophet Malachi, chapter 3 verse 10.
Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this, “says the Lord Almighty, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it”. Malachi 3:10
Growing up Baptist I learned this Bible verse. I was taught at a very young age that I needed to give back to God a portion of what he had already given to me. I began to tithe and to give back to the Lord 10% of whatever money I received or earned. I didn’t realize until I was an older teenager that not everyone tithed to their church.
It hasn’t always been easy to maintain the practice of tithing. Many of you know that Scott and I have five children. There were very many lean times; a time of being on food stamps, of not having the money to buy an ice cream cone, buy new Easter outfits for the children and only buying things from the grocery store that we had coupons for. Even in those lean times we continued to offer our tithes to God. As the Lord says, “test me in this and I will pour out more blessings than you can manage”. I must tell you that God has ALWAYS provided. Someone would invite us to dinner when the cabinet was almost empty, we would receive an unexpected refund for something or an unexpected check. God was and has always been faithful to the promise found in Malachi.
I know there are some people thinking that setting a personal goal of tithing is unreachable or unrealistic and I can totally understand that thought. Maybe a good place to start is considering a proportional pledge to St David’s. In the Stewardship packet there is a Giving Chart that can guide you in proportional giving. Look at what you are currently giving and consider incrementally increasing your giving and work toward a tithe.
Stewardship is an integral part of my spiritual journey in my Christian life and faith. Each of us are called to be good and faithful Stewards of what God has given us. Your journey is different than mine and the person who is sitting next to you, their journey is different than yours. I ask each of you to prayerfully consider how God is calling and challenging you in your faith journey to give financially to St David’s so the mission God has called us to can be fulfilled.
However, Stewardship isn’t just about money (but since this is Stewardship Pledge season I definitely needed to put some emphasis on that) it is a way of life; it is not a season, it is how we live our lives, how we take care of our environment and assist those in need, how we spend our time, how we use our gifts and talents. It is how we show our gratitude to God for all he has so generously given to us.
I would like to conclude with something I read recently “The greatest reward to giving is that we get to be a channel of God’s generosity to others”.
May each of us be a channel of God’s generosity to others.