A Journey From Scarcity to Abundance

As a kid, I attended church with my parents most Sundays, so I knew about tithing. But when it came to following Jesus as an adult, tithing was not a natural response for me. My parents divorced when I was 13, and I watched my mom struggle financially to raise me and my older sister. Money was always tight, and sometimes the bills weren’t paid. It scared me and it marked me. Fast forward 20 years, and I found myself a single mom of four kids! On the surface, it looked like I was doing okay—I owned my home and took care of the kids’ needs. But the truth was that under the surface, my finances were in a mess. Watching what my mom went through, I never wanted my kids to see any financial struggles, so big expenses went on credit cards, and I never missed a payment. I was surviving but was far from thriving.

A Journey of Obedience

In 2018, I attended Christ Fellowship for the first time and gave my life to Jesus. This marked the start of my giving journey. And I say “journey,” not as a cliche, but because it really was a journey—from obligation to obedience, from fear to surrender, and from scarcity to abundance.

In the beginning, I gave because I knew that it was the “right” thing to do. I had knowledge—I read what the Bible said about the tithe, and I heard it preached. But I was scared. I became that child again, listening to my mom pleading with the landlord to give her another week to get the rent. Fear shouts loudly, and I kept hearing the words “You can’t afford to tithe!” And it was true–on paper, I barely had 1% left at the end of the month, let alone 10%. So I continued to consistently give a little each month.

As time went on and I leaned into what God was doing in my heart, my relationship with Him grew stronger and stronger. I was “all in” (or so I thought). I was attending church every week, listening to worship music, praying, and reading my Bible. I was in a group and even served with an online prayer group. A lot was changing in my life, but my finances and my giving stayed the same. But God was working on that part of my heart, too. I started to feel the Holy Spirit calling me to tithe, but my answer was always the same: “I can’t afford to tithe.” But I just couldn’t shake the voice in my heart. One day, I prayed a prayer that changed my life. I asked God to show me any part of my life that I needed to fully surrender to Him, and I heard God speak so clearly in my spirit to trust him with my finances and to tithe. In that moment, my mind, still bound by my unhealthy money mindset, was screaming “no,” but in my heart I wanted to surrender and trust God. So I made the decision, on a beautiful early Spring day in March 2020, to trust God and return the tithe to Him. I wasted no time in setting up a recurring gift in PushPay for 10% of my income each month for the rest of the year.

Learning Contentment in Chaos 

When COVID happened, the lockdowns and uncertainty had a devastating impact on my newly formed consulting business, and I lost 6 months of business overnight. Talk about scary! But the remarkable thing was that, for the first time in my life, I felt no fear over my finances. I trusted that God would be true to His word and that He would provide. All I needed to do was be obedient and not cancel my recurring tithe! At a time when things could have looked so bleak, God blessed me in so many ways–from my mortgage provider giving me a 3-month grace period, and new work pouring into my business, to an overwhelming peace and joy that flooded my heart in the midst of the chaos, fear, and uncertainty sweeping the world. I realized this was what it looked like to live the John 10:10 abundant life that Jesus came to give us!

And it didn’t stop there….

As I continued to put God first with my tithe, He began to teach me about being a good steward. I went on a spending fast and downsized my house (and mortgage!), learning what contentment felt like. I took Financial Peace University through Christ Fellowship and became a qualified “plastic surgeon,” cutting up my credit cards and paying off my debts within 12 months. But by far the best part was the change that was happening in my heart and my mind about money and generosity. I went from obligation–knowing that I should give; to obedience–believing that it all comes from God and to honor Him with the tithe; to surrender–believing that it all belongs to God, the 10% and the 90%, and that He gets to decide what I do with all of it. This step of surrender unlocked an adventure of generosity that I never would have imagined possible for a single mom like me!

Blessed to Overflowing

God placed a dream in my heart to one day give away my car. I got to witness this promise become a reality as I handed the keys to my minivan over to a family in need. It was at that moment that I experienced God’s promise in Malachi 3:10 that He would “open the windows of Heaven and shower so much blessing that there would not be room enough to store it.” When I trusted God with the one thing that scared me the most, He blessed me beyond my wildest dreams and in ways that extended far beyond me and my family. This is truly what it feels like to be blessed to overflowing! If you’re feeling bound by an unhealthy money mindset and afraid to trust God with your finances, my prayer is that you start by just trusting Him with the next step. Whatever that is for you, trust that He is a good God who wants you to live a life of true freedom and abundance.