Trust God's Provision

Now that the college wrestling season has officially ended, I can shift my focus to another of my favorite sports: baseball. Last week, in the young 2025 MLB season, the American League Central had a funny moment. All five teams, including my Kansas City Royals, had lost four games and won only two. This meant every team was in first place and last place with a 2–4 record!

But when the baseball season ends, I can pretty much guarantee you won't see a five-way-tie for first or last place. However, when you add up all of the wins and losses of all 30 MLB teams, you will find the total number of wins will perfectly match the total number of losses. This is called a "zero-sum game."

Zero-Sum Finances?

Too often, we treat money like a zero-sum game. We think money out means financial loss, and money in is a financial win. So when a church or charitable organization asks for a donation, we are hesitant to give, because it will mean a "loss" in our zero-sum financial game.

But as we end this blog series on trusting God, we see from Proverbs 3:9-10 that giving to God doesn't equal a deficit on earth. Rather, generosity can lead to abundance.

Let's look at it by breaking these two verses into two parts: the command and the effect.

The Command

Verse 9 of Proverbs 3 is the command from God to us...

"Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce." (Proverbs 3:9, ESV)

Several times in the Mosaic Law, God instructs the Israelites to give of their "firstfruits." These firstfruits included not only the earliest produce harvested but also referred to giving your best (like a spotless lamb for a sacrifice). This command kept the people from just giving their leftovers or junk to God, so that they might truly honor the one who gave it to them in the first place.

Also, this type of giving helped the people "live by faith and not by sight." (2 Corinthians 5:7) When they gave, they had to trust they could live on what they kept. So if they gave their first and best 10% to God, they trusted He could enable them to live on the remaining 90%.

So when we see this word "firstfruit" in Proverbs 3:9, it means Solomon is telling his son to honor God with his finances by giving first to God and giving his best to God.

The Effect

And what is the result of honoring God by giving Him your firstfruit?

"...then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine." (Proverbs 3:10, ESV)

To put this into modern speak, God can take what you give and return it to you multiplied. This is because what you have isn't truly yours... it is God's. When you give, you are acknowledging your gift was God's to begin with, and that He can abundantly provide for you out of His "storehouse." So your giving isn't actually a loss, but ultimately a gain!

We'll be talking about this concept more in the month of May when we do a financial series on Sundays entitled Dollars & Sense and here on the blog through a series called Seven Qualities of a Giver. Until then, may you trust God's provision by generously giving your firstfruits to the opportunities God places before you.