The Reason For Giving - Foundation Series

Show Notes

At the end of the year, many people do extra giving — sometimes trying to take advantage of tax deductions, and sometimes just because they’re trying “catch up” with giving they intended to do earlier. Whatever the immediate motive may be, giving, for the Christian, should have a DEEPER motive. I’ll talk about that just ahead. This is MoneyWise Live - biblical wisdom for your financial journey.

• From time to time on the program, we like to revisit the five basic things you can do with money. Here they are: You can earn it, live on it, give it away, owe it to someone or the government, or you can grow it for the future by saving and investing. Those five are easy to remember: earn, live, give, owe, and grow. On this episode, we're going to focus on giving money away. There’s a good deal of emphasis on giving at the end of the year. A lot of that is because of the tax deduction allowed for giving. People want to get their giving done so they claim a deduction on their 2022 taxes that they’ll be filing a few weeks or months from now.
• You need to be aware that the DEDUCTION HAS CHANGED since last year. For tax year 2021, you could deduct $300 in charitable giving — $600 if you were filing jointly as a married couple even if you didn’t itemize. That was a temporary deduction that’s gone now and does not apply for 2022.
• To get a deduction for giving you do HAVE TO ITEMIZE your deductions. Interesting fact - With the standard deduction being much higher than it used to be, relatively few (12%) taxpayers still itemize. That means that, for most folks, a tax deduction just doesn’t come into play when making giving decisions.
• There’s nothing wrong with taking a charitable-giving deduction if you meet the requirements but whether or not you get a tax break should not be the deciding factor in WHETHER TO GIVE because, for the Christian, giving is a matter of the heart, a sign of our love for the Lord — much in the same way you probably just gave Christmas gifts to your dearest loved ones.
• Giving a gift to a friend or family member is a way of saying, “I love you, and I am so glad you’re in my life.” Money has value to us; we work hard for it. So when we use it to buy a gift for someone, we’re saying, “I treasure you more than money.” The same is true of giving to God’s work — whether through giving to a local church or a specialized ministry — we’re saying, “Lord, I treasure YOU more than money.”
• It certainly seems providential that, here in the US, our coins and currency have on them the phrase, “In God We Trust.” Every time we see that, it would be appropriate to say, “Amen!” Our attitude as believers is that our trust is in God, and not in the money that we have. When we give, we offer testimony that we really do trust him — we trust him to meet our needs, and we trust that his grace is sufficient for us in every situation.
• A true story - in 1859, French tightrope walker Charles Blondin walked 1,100 feet from end to end above Niagara Falls on a tightrope. He, then, did it again blindfolded. After that, he asked the crowd, “Do you believe I can do it again?” They had already seen him do it more than once! So they called out approvingly, “Yes, we believe you can do it again!” At that point, Blondin asked for a volunteer to climb on his back and go across the Falls with him. As you probably can guess, no one in the crowd volunteered. No one believed in him THAT much!
• Well, when we give generously, from the heart and with the right motives, it’s like saying, “Lord, I DO trust you that much. I believe that although I am giving this money away, you’ll take care of me and meet all my needs.” So, as you do your year-end giving, remember these two things:
• Giving is an affair of the heart; it’s about what we truly treasure.
• It is a sign of our trust in the Lord.
• One more thing to keep in mind: As we give, we REFLECT the heart of God, who gave us his only Son — the One whose birth we just celebrated.

Next, Rob answers these questions at 800-525-7000 or via email at Questions@MoneyWiseLive.org:

• Since the colleges and universities are the entities that contributed to high education costs, should it be incumbent on them to help settle the student loan debt problem?
• If you recently bought an I Bond but have received no paperwork indicating they have your money, should you be concerned?
• Should you invest in Bitcoin as an investment?
• Is there a biblical idea of retirement?
• due to a change in your employer you want to roll your 401(k) over to a traditional IRA with about $250,000, what should be the cost of this?
• What are Donor Advised Funds?
• If you're retired from military and, including your spouse, you're making about $300,000 per year, you own a rental property and a primary residence and you're about to sell the rental to partially fund building your dream house and you plan to sell your primary half-way into building but wonder if you should sell now, how can you decide?
• If your heirs are part of the rapture, how do you pass your estate on to them since there might not be a death certificate?
• If you're 70 and your husband, who managed your finances, passed away 3 years ago and you're admittedly not a financial expert, you have about $300,000 in Edward Jones that you don't use for income, what is the best thing to do with this as you go forward?
• Are Charitable Gift Annuities a good way to give to a ministry?

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