Giving has never been a question of faith it has always been a question of believing

For years now many have been complaining about the state of our union and especially Black America has been crying about the state of the black community but no one involved in this struggle has ever considered that the reason these situations exist are simply because we violate, every day, the core argument of religion and we have gone so far to disguise it that many who truly wish to get on the right side of this issue cannot clearly see the lines or borders drawn by the word of God so many billions of years ago.

The Bible tells us that we cannot serve two masters and no matter how hard we try, we continue to fail and fail miserably.  The two masters we attempt to serve and the one that God was probably trying to warn us about so many years ago is both God and man.  God asks us to believe in him, trust in him and have faith that he will see us through all of our darkness, pain and suffering but we fail because when we are in pain we seek man’s remedy to cure us and only after man has turned us down, turned us away or disappoint us do we then seek God’s help.  But if God was truly your master, you would have gone to him first and then he would have directed you to that one person, that one healer who would have stopped your pain, your master was man first.  The Bible tells us to fear not hunger for as he feeds the birds, he will surely make sure you are fed but we work for man and we do for man.  Man will offer us money and we will accept it as a form of payment and if we wish to continue eating, we will continue to do as instructed by man.  But if God was truly your master, you would have gone to him first and then he would have directed you to that one person, that one feeder who would have provided you nourishment, your master was man first.  The Bible tells us that within its pages is the guide on how Christians should live, should treat each other’s and should reach decisions that benefit the whole body instead of just certain parts of that body but we refuse to read and take heed of what’s within those pages, instead we listen to man who now takes passages from those pages and tell us that this is what God meant instead of what we read.  But if God was truly your master, you would have gone to him first and then he would have directed you to that one person, that one advisor who would have helped you find your answers, your master was man first.

You say you call on God and he does not answer but yet there is someone within your current circle who disagrees with you and presents evidence that he does listen, you refuse to listen to that person within your circle because he/she is not saying what you want to hear, not knowing all that time that God did hear you and he did answer because that person within your current circle is the one he sent as an answer.  You say you have faith but do you truly believe?  Having faith knows that things will work out but believing is not allowing things to take you off your game or redirect your course.  If you seek to do well all day and have faith that your day will be a great one, you must also have the belief so when bad things happen during that day, to throw you off your game, it does not work as evil has planned because your belief is so strong and cannot be derailed by evil.  You say that there are far too many problems to deal with and no one has the answer to these problems but I say that all problems that exist do so because we allow them to exist and if we allow them to exist; we can erase them and take back that power that we have given them.

Consider this; it is reported that in the last 30 years black churches has taken in $420 billion dollars from members now imagine that money being loaned to the city of Flint to fix its water line, or been invested in the black community to help fund businesses in the area that would create at least 20 good paying jobs for the local residents.  No barber shops or beauty parlors, no garages or fix-it shops but businesses where products that can be sold nationally and internationally are made.  Imagine taking that money and buying up all of the old and abandoned properties around your neighborhood, rehabbing them and selling them to locals on a rent-to-own basis giving them a true stake in the community where they live and try to raise their families.   Image civic and religious leaders coming together not to vet a presidential nominee but to transform a community.  The millions of dollars you place within a collection plate goes directly into the community in which you live so that every single day you rise up from your bed and walk outside your door, you can see the fruits of your labor as a new home is built or that eye-sore of an abandon building across the street is getting rehabbed, maybe even seeing your neighbor who has been unemployed for years heading toward their car and waving to you with a hearty good morning because the money you donated has helped him/her find a good paying job.

This is the difference between having faith and believing, you have the faith that things will work out but you believe it so strongly that you do not allow anyone or anything to stop you from having a hand in making it happen.  You say this is what I am going to do and as long as you honestly believe that it is pleasing God, you get it done. You begin to feel more and more content with life and it ceases to be so over-whelming.  Man wishes you to think that there is nothing one single person can do to change the way the world works and so we bow to man’s will and just sit back and complain but God tells you that all in possible as long as you have faith and believe.  The Wright Brothers had faith that they would one day come up with a way to travel in the skies and that strong belief led them to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, you can be sure that man was already telling them that it was impossible.   Jesse Owens was told that his speed would never amount to anything good and that he really needed to focus on something else but his faith in his God-given talent and his belief was so strong that today, we celebrate his accomplishments and it lives on to inspire others to race.  Martin Luther King was told that his desire for civil rights would do nothing but place a target on his back but his faith that we would reach that mountain top and his belief that we would touch that promised land was so strong that today, there are movies made of his courage and character, monuments to his refusal to quit and holidays named in his honor for refusing to accept things as man once told him it was.

The current condition of the world is not due to some divine plan of God or evil, it is due to the lack of believing from those created in God’s image, and it’s a mess because of us.  For over 30 years, you have invested over 420 billion dollars in to a belief that by doing so you can buy your salvation and God will be so pleased with your generous donations that he would bless you with a peaceful life so why is your life not so peaceful then, is it because God is not listening and does not see or could it be you are serving the wrong master because man says that the way to a more peaceful life is to donate as much and as often as you can.  You may have faith that God will answer your prayers but you do not believe because you seek other ways to have your prayers answered.  You pray to God for the funds to provide for your family and right after you pray, you head straight for the local convenient store and buy a few lottery tickets, so much for believing.