There are more than a few people here who believe ALL of their money belongs to them, and God did away with any idea that some of it belonged to Him. See, they believe ALL they earn/gain is because of what THEY have done. Funny ain't it?
Ha ha, yes I see some of that in my own church.
You said it above, it's not possible to out give God.
Ive lost count over the years of the number of times I have given something to
someone and later received an unexpected cheque in the post, or some thing else,
although I never give to receive.
The first instance - Many years ago when I was 18 I left school after finishing 6th form
college and started my first job. That job was provided by God, i walked in and the
person interviewing me was a Christian (I only found this out later), he just gave me the
job without even asking me much at all. (This also happened at another job interview
some years later). I was so green and quiet as a mouse i really didn't know what to say
to him. I think he felt a bit sorrow for me!
Salaries were paid the last week of each month but because I started on the last week
there wasn't enough time to get everything sorted for pay day.
This meant I had to work 5 weeks before getting paid.
My Aunt was on sick but for reasons unknown she was forced to sign off sick and go on a two
month course. She got paid weekly but the money was a pittance and just slightly above
the benefits level. (After two months they put her back on sick again!). It took 2 weeks
for her money to get sorted for that training course.
We could not afford the rent so I contacted the landlord and explained the situation, they
agreed it was ok for me to pay 5 weeks rent in one go when I eventually got paid.
I couldn't afford the bus fare so walked two miles to work and back every day, my Aunt
managed to get a free bus pass through the training scheme.
We were struggling to pay the other bills and there wasn't much left over for food.
We didn't tell anyone about our situation but prayed about it.
Guess what, another distant relative who wasn't even a Christian turned up on 3
occasions with bags of food! Then another person turned up one day with a
sack of potatoes!
We were so poor but we laughed and felt so blessed!
When I did get paid I paid off the rent, and we managed to get ourselves back
on track.
It always makes me laugh when I hear young people discussing what they will buy with
their first wage, usually this is bags, shoes etc. For me it was paying the rent!
But God provided for us - both the job and the food.