Daring FaithSample

The More You Give Away, the More Influential You’ll Be

“They share freely and give generously to those in need. Their good deeds will be remembered forever. They will have influence and honor.” (Psalm 112:9 NLT, second edition)

Generosity expands your influence. The more generous you become, the more influential you will become.

Influence comes not from what you get in life. Influence comes from what you give away in life, and the more you give away, the more influential you’ll be.

The Bible says in Proverbs 11:24, “The world of the generous gets larger and larger; the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller” (MSG).

The Bible also says, “They share freely and give generously to those in need. Their good deeds will be remembered forever. They will have influence and honor” (Psalm 112:9 NLT, second edition).

Forty years ago when Kay and I got married, we started tithing 10 percent. At the end of our first year of marriage, we raised our giving to 11 percent. At the end of our second year, we raised it to 12 percent. At the end of the third year, we raised it to 13 percent. Every year for 40 years, even in tough times, we have raised our giving a little bit.

Why? Because I wanted my heart to grow bigger every year. I wanted to be more like Jesus. I wanted to be godly. I wanted to be holy.

We weren’t doing this to show off. In fact, I didn’t tell anybody about it for more than 25 years. We just quietly did it every year until 10 years ago when we started giving away 91 percent of our income and living on 9 percent.

We do it because we cannot out-give God. And while my giving went up, so did my influence.

God wants to do the same in your life. How are you doing with being generous?