What Do You Want Your Financial Legacy to Be?
I was extravagant as a financial giver after returning from Korea, where I got saved in 1978. God gave me great grace, and giving came naturally to me. This God-given generosity was something new. My father used to say I was thrifty. My sister used to say I was cheap.
So, I gave away large sums of money to promote the gospel; consequently, when I got engaged to be married, the funds were low.
Before Vanessa and I headed off on our honeymoon in December 1982, I wasn’t sure if I had saved enough money, but the Lord provided. About a year beforehand, I got audited by the IRS because they thought my giving was a hoax; the agent was dumbfounded when I produced the giving receipts.
Still, if I could talk to 20-something Kevin Willis, I’d talk to him about the law of compounding interest and explain how just setting aside a small sum of money for consistent investment in the stock market would make him a millionaire before retirement age. While this is, in fact, true, all I can say is, thank God I was not around to discourage my younger self!
Vanessa homeschooled our four children, so we were a single-income family. I remember my anxiety about paying for our oldest daughter to attend VA Tech, but before I knew it, we had three daughters in college at the same time, but the Lord provided.
Years later, none of our children have college debt. Our house is almost paid off. I retired three-and-a-half years ago, and we have moderate holdings in the stock market. None of this makes sense, but the Lord provided.
Jesus is Lord over finances and has a financial system. Allow me to explain it in a nutshell after 45 years of first-hand experience: If you give to God, He will meet your needs and provide you with something left over.
My prayer is that the grace of giving comes upon the lives of everyone who reads this article and may this grace spread like wildfire through the body of Christ.
People who give to the work of God are directly responsible for advancing the Great Commission. (Matthew 28:19-20) In other words, people are saved, healed, delivered and set free globally. What do you want your financial legacy to be?
Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.” (Luke 6:38, NKJV) God Bless! Press On!! Kevin
