Give Forward
Gratitude or Future Grace?
One of my favorite books is one of John Piper’s least known. It’s called Future Grace. In this book, Piper argues that our primary motivation for Christian living shouldn’t be gratitude. That can be dangerous. We can begin to think we somehow pay God back for what He’s done, thus meriting His goodness in some way. Rather, our motivation should be “faith in future grace.” We look back so we can look forward. We see what the Lord has done in the past. We hope for what He’ll do in the future.
Last summer, we walked through some sermons grouped under the heading “Give Back.” The thesis of the series was that we should give to the Lord motivated by what He has done. However, as I ponder that, I think it needs a bit of a correction. We should give ultimately, as Piper so wisely says in the book, out of faith in His future grace.
In the next few weeks, as we round out our budget year in Karis Church, I want to talk about giving forward. Yes, we give back to the Lord out of gratitude, but we also - and more importantly - give forward to Him out of faith. We give trusting Him to continue to work in us and through us. In this short blog series, I want us to look backward, seeing how God has blessed us in the past year. And I want us to look forward, giving with an excitement in what He’ll do.
Let's Give Forward
Our budget year ends June 30th. At this point, we lack $51,501.31 to make this year’s budget. In addition, we’ll have to raise our budget for next year to do all we believe God is calling us to do (this primarily involves providing for our growing staff). The Lord has done so much this past year, and we’ll talk about that in the coming posts. However, faithful ministry costs money, and we still have expenses associated with this past year. And there is so much more we want to see happen in the months ahead. If you haven’t given, will you begin now, helping us to meet last year’s goal? Will you also resolve to faithfully contribute to what we sense God calling us to do in the coming year? You can give online on The City here.