Reader FAQ: Why Isn’t Giving Fixing My Financial Problems?

Beloved, are you a giver–but a frustrated giver who still has financial problems? Do you ever ask God why He hasn’t prospered you yet, since you’re giving like He told you to?

If so, I want to see if I can help shed some light on this topic by suggesting some things that you might want to take a look at, to see what the Lord shows you.

We often receive a question from our readers that is something like this:

“I tithe and sow, but I am still in financial trouble. Why isn’t my giving fixing my financial problems?”

And although one email is not enough space for a comprehensive answer about this, I wanted to share a few thoughts that I am hoping will help.

Related: Learn more here about what tithing is, and why it’s not limited to the Law.

A few random things to know about financial blessing versus economic hard times:

1. God does sometimes allow His people to go through difficulties, trials, and storms of various kinds.

If the storm was caused by someone’s sin, God didn’t cause the storm or put you into it. (The Bible says that He can’t tempt anyone to sin.) But, there are plenty of storms that aren’t caused by sin. Why does He allows those storms? Because He is going to use the storm to make us more like Jesus, and to do us good in the end.

2. No person who doesn’t know you well ​in the details of your life​ can tell you exactly why you’re still struggling, or what you need to do to fix it, like a one-stop-shop of financial fix-it-ness.

It’s arrogant for anybody to presume that they ever could. The ONLY place to find your solution(s) is within the pages of God’s Word.

3. Financial increase and blessing often come incrementally.

You might work and work and work, making only tiny progress–but eventually that tiny progress starts to snowball, and then you begin seeing real results. The beginning years can be frustrating, however, if you take your eyes off Jesus and look at how far you feel you have not come. (Better to keep your eyes on Jesus.)

4. Financial increase and wealth don’t always look like we expect them to look.

Let’s face it: if you have food in your belly and clothes on your back, you’re doing better than a large portion of the world’s population. You can be blessed and still go through extremely hard times. In those times, give thanks anyway.

5. When you begin to grow financially, and you move along in life in a growth pattern, you will still have challenges.

Those challenges will still be hard, but the scope of your challenges will be in keeping with the scope of your current financial position. For example, when you were broke and in debt, you might not have had $70 to fill up your vehicle with gasoline.

But, when you start your roofing business and it grows, but hard times come, you might not know where your $30,000 is going to come from on payday to pay your 15 employees. Either way, the challenge feels just as difficult to each person … it’s just a different scope of challenge, based on where you are in life.

With those things said, here’s a really important key to financial increase:

The Bible contains ​hundreds ​of financial commands, particularly in the book of Proverbs. And God’s financial commands are FAR more practical than most people ever give Him credit for.

Here’s what I mean:

• The book of Proverbs talks about budgeting.
• It talks about debt, and the horrors thereof.
• Proverbs talks about financial planning.
• Proverbs talks EXTENSIVELY about the ABSOLUTE NECESSITY of owning your OWN business. Yes, you’re supposed to be an entrepreneur! It’s literally the only way to be the head, and not the tail; above only, and not beneath.
• Proverbs talks about the wisdom of owning livestock or other self-multiplying assets.
• Proverbs talks about the value of your intellectual property.

I could go on and on. Basically, in the book of Proverbs, God the Holy Spirit preaches how to see God’s Kingdom come and His will be done on earth ​​and in your finances​ ​as it is in Heaven.

Related: 5 Ways Holy Spirit Gives Wealth

That’s not even counting the other 65 books in the Bible that also contain many important financial keys, rules, principles, and commandments.

And in order to be blessed 100% by God, we have to ​obey​ God 100%. 

We even have to obey the commands that we don’t know exist. And sometimes the lack of blessing is going on because we don’t know that we’re disobeying one of God’s financial commands.

The problem is, a lot of people think God’s commands are limited to tithing and sowing. And the Word DOES command us to worship God with the first of our income (tithing) and with giving offerings to Him, and even to take care of the poor.

But those things are only the tip of the iceberg.

It’s true that they are the entry steps to financial blessing. But, they are only the very ​beginning​ steps to wealth.

So if you’ve ever asked yourself, “I’m tithing and sowing. Why am I not prospering?” … then you also might want to ask yourself questions like:

• What’s my current financial plan?
• Am I on a specific, written budget every single day?
• Am I investing in my own business?
• Do I own self-multiplying assets?
• ​Do I have healthy boundaries? Have I co-signed or become surety for some other person that ought to get off their blessed assurance and start supporting themselves?

Again, these questions could go on and on. But, in general, these kinds of questions can be VERY revealing.

Long story short: Tithing and giving to the Lord are necessary entry points to wealth. God’s abundant provision is clearly tied to our giving, according to Scripture.

But if you’re already doing that, and wealth has just not shown up yet, maybe some of these other aspects of your personal finances deserve a second look.

What questions do you have about these things? Leave a comment below, and I will do my best to answer!