God has done real-life miracles in my life. If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know, I have seen God’s power with my own eyes and could tell story-upon-story of all the miracles I have seen God do for me and my family. (So many of them I’ve shared on this blog.)
But today I want to share with you why I believe we’ve been able to experience God moving in such incredible, awe-inspiring ways… It’s a topic I’ve never talked about on this blog, but here it is: We are lavishly, uncomfortably, generous with our money.
(It’s not who we’ve always been, but it’s who we’ve become — And it’s changed everything.)
Warning: this post won’t be for everyone. Some people are so protective, so combative about their money, they can’t even have a conversation, much less read a blog post with an open mind. So if that’s the category you fall under, no offense… I’m sure you are wonderful, but to clarify this blog post is NOT for you. I’m also equally sorry, because your refusal to be generous is also your stamp of approval to live a life with a cap on all the miraculous things you will see God do… (or won’t do, for that matter.)
Because I don’t say this lightly or flippantly: Generosity can change your life! (As a fact, it has changed mine!)
Generosity has unlocked God’s blessing in our lives. It’s let loose a favor that is untamed and a story that is unrivaled. And hear me say this, God desires to do the same in your life in 2018.
The question I will pose to you today is: Have you given God enough space to move?
I don’t know what you are praying for in 2018. What miracle you are believing for, what areas of your life you need God to change His stance in, take up your cause, and come to your rescue in. Maybe there are bank accounts, pregnancy tests, and relationships around your family table, where you are desperate to see God’s redemptive power with your own eyes.
The degree in which God is capable of moving in our lives is directly dependent on how much room we give Him to do so. And that’s what generosity does, it makes space for God to move miraculously.
Making space for God to move is much like giving someone space to move in a game of kickball. You can kick a propelling ball, no matter how tight the space you have to work with, but if you give a person enough room to get a running start? Without a doubt, the further and more impressive the resulting kick.
I don’t know about you, but I need God to move impressively in my life in 2018. I need God to show up and move some M O U N T A I N S!
This year specifically, I’m asking God to move miraculously in my little family.
It’s been six years since we started trying for another child. (So long, that even complete strangers have given up on me ever having another kid. Inquiring at the grocery store… the school yard…heck, even while waiting for the bus…. why I “only wanted one”?)
The only thing worse than how wrong they are (I have desperately wanted another baby) is how impossibly far away it feels from that reality ever changing. Yet, here I am, believing for the miracle it would be that maybe, just maybe, 2018 is the year that it will.
Maybe like me, you feel foolish believing 2018 is the year it could change. But understand, God is inviting us right now to grab hold of the hope that, with Him, it could.
God wants to get a running start and kick it out of the park in your life…to show you — maybe for the first time — what your God is capable of doing (and to the full extent He is capable of doing it).
It’s what happened for David.
In 2 Samuel 24, we see David desperate for God to move B I G.
And God would…
…David just had to make a space big enough for God to move.
David knew, the greater you want to see God move, the greater the space you have to make. So when a huge epidemic swept through Jerusalem killing 70,000 people in one day, David did something surprising, He brought an offering to God… a generous one. Saying, these words that have wrecked me all week, “I’m not going to offer God, my God, sacrifices that are no sacrifice.” (vs.24)
Don’t miss this: because David needed God to move significantly, he gave sacrificially!
A sacrifice isn’t a special number, nor does it have to be a high one. But to be sure, a sacrifice is felt. Giving sacrificially is the act of letting go and emptying ourselves of something significantly valuable, and with it, making room for God to do something show-stoppingly miraculous.
The greater the space we make, the more miraculously and powerfully our God can move — David understood that. And move miraculously is exactly what God did!
Verse 25 says after seeing the sacrifice David had made, “God was moved by the prayers and that was the end of the disaster.”
Maybe like David, you’re not only praying for God to move in 2018, you’re praying for some things to come to an end in 2018. You’re praying for the end of what feels like God’s silence, the end of this brutally dry and lifeless season. You need this cloud to lift, your most desperate prayers to stop reverberating to the heavens, you need the direction of your life to change and for God to WAKE THE HECK UP and come to your defense. (If something doesn’t change soon, you don’t know how much longer you can hold on.) I get it. I’ve been there. On so many days, I am there…
I don’t know what it is that you need from God in 2018, nor do I know how big or small a sacrifice looks for you, all I know is when we are in need of something and we give generously, it captures God’s attention the same way a person praising Him, hands outstretched to the heavens in the middle of their storm, catches His eye and moves Him to tears in a crowded sanctuary.
Our generosity is an act of worship.
Our generosity compels our God to move impressively.
I’ve seen it time and time again.
So this week, my husband and I made space for God to move impressively in our lives in 2018, and we did so by giving to Meta’s very first Christmas offering (the church we are planting in NYC).
And can I tell you something? We gave so much, it took my breath away… (the greater the space we make, the more miraculously and powerfully our God can move, right?) Like, for real, we prayed out loud to God afterwards and multiple times I had to stop and gather myself, because I just couldn’t muster up enough air in my lungs to get the words out.
Yet, as we raised our humble and sacrificial gift to Him, I know with certainty that we caught His eye, even if only for a moment. It may have even moved Him to tears. But my continued prayer is that it moves my God to A C T I O N. (We’ve given Him the space to.)
And while, some might go as far to call a generous offering to God manipulation (in an attempt to coax away their own guilt for not having the courage to do the same) …I call it, making room for the miracle.
…Making room for the miracle it would be for God to meet us here in this space we’ve made, and blaze miraculously through all of the financial, medical, and logistical reasons why the miracle we are believing for will never happen, let alone in the next year.
The bigger the sacrifice we make, the more it will be missed. But the more it is missed, the greater the space for our God to move!
We’ve decided to give God enough space to get a running head start and hit it out of the park in our lives in 2018…
|| Have you? ||
Krista Ortiz 
I want to respectfully disagree with some of the premises of the post. I don’t think that giving to God leads to blessings, because some of the greatest miracles in my life, including allowing me to have a child when I was not supposed to be able to, have come through the compassion, mercy, and grace of God the Father and at times when I did not have money to give or sometimes even faith to believe. He provided for the children of Israel even when they had nothing to give but obedience.
In regards to David in Second Samuel 24, David had sinned by conducting the census, even after Joab tried to stop it by expressing doubt that it was a good idea. In verses 10 and 17, David confessed to his sin, and God in His mercy allowed David to choose between three punishments, and David chose three days of severe plague in which 70,000 people died. God relented before the death angel destroyed Jerusalem. David bought the threshing floor and oxen for 50 pieces of silver, sacrificed to God, and God answered David’s prayer to stop the plague. This was a self-inflicted problem, and God ended the plague more from David’s confession and repentance than from his spending the 50 pieces of silver.
It is obedience that God wants more than sacrifices (See First Samuel 15). Sacrifices without changed hearts and lives are empty before God. I do not think what is written is manipulation, but a misunderstanding of God’s mercy and grace. Yes, giving for the work of the Lord and to provide for the poor is good and expected, but our money is not the basis of God’s goodness or the miracles in our lives. I am praying that your desire for a second child will be part of God’s plan for your lives, the hope and future that He has for you, and that you will see this miracle happen. May your church be successful in reaching the lost for Jesus.
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So many things to say, so little time. God does honor our sacrificial giving. He knows our heart condition upon making the decision and he blesses that. So I agree.
As you know, He doesn’t need our nickels He needs our desire to give them! Give on sister. Give big, give loud, give proud. Encouraging the rest of us to do the same is God honoring work.
Now go have fun trying to make some babies…maybe twins.
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Wow, what a narrow viewpoint on generosity. Congratulations to you that you are finally in a season where you consider yourself generous. Next, you might want to work on humility. I’m sure this comment will be deleted and you’ll write me off as one of those “combative” and selfish readers. I just hate when Christian bloggers start off with judement (“no offense” or whatever) and use their blog to make themselves feel superior. Gross post, don’t worry I won’t bother commenting anymore because I won’t be reading anymore.
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No, I would never delete your comment, Autumn. In fact, I put your comment all over social media for even more people to see! (You are – so very -welcome.)
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You know what, in the light of the next day…I realize that I was a troll. I apologize. In fact, I’ll even recind most of my statement, some of your post (in light of the second read through) I found to be beautiful and true. However it was off putting to read your initial disclaimer, I felt really insulted….and let me tell you why. Everyone has seasons, I’ve had seasons of financial generosity, also seasons of other kinds of generosity. Not everyone is called by God at all times to be uncomfortably generous with their money, what is important is that we don’t make money an idol. I also think that we shouldn’t brag about the sacrifices that we are making while making others feel guilty that they aren’t doing the same exact thing that God is currently asking of you. I don’t think that miracles are tied to money, at all. Generosity and sacrifice, yes, but money no. So maybe I’m not understanding your point. Either way, I didn’t feel good about my anger fueled comment, so please accept my apologies.
I’ve always enjoyed reading even back to your Urban Hallelujah days. This is most likely the end of that season for me…but I wish you all the best.
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Well, thank you, Autumn. I accept and truly appreciate your apology. I think if we were to meet in person you would find that we would actually see eye to eye on this issue. At least, more than you may think. (For the record, I agree with everything you wrote in your comment above.) But nonetheless, I appreciate you reaching out kindly.
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Thank you for being gracious. What a long and frustrating week it has been, and I took it out on you. Ugh. And it just plain made me feel worse. If you someday write a post about the anonymous internet troll that had a tantrum about your blog …I promise I will read it and not even comment…not one little peep. 😉
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Thank you for being gracious. What a long and frustrating week it has been, and I took it out on you. Ugh. And it just plain made me feel worsemin. If you someday write a post about the anonymous internet troll that had a tantrum about your blog …I promise I will read it and not even comment…not one little peep. 😉
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I’m so sorry to hear you have had a frustrating week, Autumn ❤️ I know that feeling well. Here’s what I know, ‘most people, most of the time, are doing the best that they can.’ — you’ve been through a lot this week, and though maybe you wouldn’t do some things the same (or write the same things, haha…) I have no doubt you are doing the best that you can considering what you’ve been up against this week. I see that. And God sees that, too.
As for me, hear it here first: it’s already been forgotten. (No post detailing an internet troll necessary. Pinky promise 😂)
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