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FOUNDATIONS – Episode 121 –  Grace and Generosity · Your Daily Grace

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  Hello, welcome to your Daily Grace By Timothy Wilder Foundations Episode 121 Grace and Generosity Trust Based Living if I'm honest, trust is easy to talk about and much harder to practice.
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  Most of us have no problem saying that God is our provider. We believe the verses, sing the songs, and and nod our heads when someone talks about God's faithfulness. The challenge comes when life presents us with an opportunity to actually trust Him. It is one thing to say we trust God when everything feels secure. It is another thing entirely when we are forced to depend on Him.
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  That is one reason generosity is such a revealing spiritual practice.
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  Giving has a way of exposing where our confidence truly rests. It forces us to answer a simple question, Do I really believe God will take care of me?
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  About 15 years ago, my wife and I were preparing for another ministry trip to Russia. As we planned and prayed, we had a financial goal we felt was necessary for the trip to be successful.
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  The problem was that one week before our departure, we were still 700 short.
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  We prayed, we trusted, we we worried. The amazing thing was that over the course of that week, money began arriving from different and unexpected sources, almost as if God was teaching us a lesson one day at a time.
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  On the first day, 100 came in, then another 100 the next day, then another.
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  By the morning we were scheduled to leave. We had received 600 of the 700 we needed, but we were still short.
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  As we loaded suitcases into the taxi and prepared to leave for the airport, the mail carrier arrived.
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  Among the mail was an envelope. Inside was the final $100.
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  Looking back, God had provided every dollar we needed, yet he didn't provide it on my preferred schedule. If I had been writing the story, the full amount would have arrived weeks earlier so I could relax and focus on preparing for the tr.
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  Instead, he provided in a way that stretched my faith almost daily.
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  What I remember most about that experience is not the money itself. It is the realization that God was teaching us something about trust.
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  Throughout that week, we found ourselves wondering what parts of our planned ministry we might have to cancel.
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  We were calculating possibilities while God was quietly demonstrating his faithfulness.
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  Jesus addressed this tendency in Matthew 6 when he told his followers not to worry about tomorrow.
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  His point was not that needs are unimportant, but that our Father is fully aware of them. The same God who cares for the birds of the air and the flowers of the field knows exactly what his children need.
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  Under the new covenant, giving becomes an expression of that trust.
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  We do not give to earn God's favor or persuade him to bless us. In Christ we already possess his acceptance and love. We give because we are learning to trust the One who has promised never to leave us nor forsake us.
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  Philippians 4:19 reminds us that God will supply all our needs according to his riches in Christ Jesus. That promise does not always mean provision arrives when we want it, sometimes it arrives exactly when we need it and sometimes as in our case God's timing becomes part of the lesson.
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  Trust based living is not the absence of questions or concerns, it is choosing to believe God's faithfulness is greater than our fears. Generosity becomes one expression of that trust.
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  Every time we open our hands we are declaring that our security is not fear found in what we possess but in the God who faithfully provides.
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