Research: Bible reading leads to less debt and more giving

New www.StateofthePlate.info View from the Pew research shows that the more faithful someone is in their daily Bible reading, they will have less debt and be more likely to give 10% or more to the LORD’s work, reports Dr. Brian Kluth, special to ASSIST News Service.

Over 1000 Christian households participated in the second annual View from the Pew surveys, a collaborative research project by my Maximum Generosity ministry and Christianity Today International. Survey participants provided the following valuable insights into how the economy has impacted their employment, finances, debts, and giving/tithing.

Daily Bible Readers Have Less Debt

For those who consistently read their Bible every day, they have less mortgage payments, car payments, or unpaid credit cards. The less people read their Bible the more likely they were to have more debts among survey participants. There are likely two major reasons for this clear difference. The first reason would be that discipline in one’s spiritual life often leads to greater disciplines in other areas of one’s life, including how someone manages their finances. The second reason is that those who consistently spend time in the Scriptures are tapping into God’s wisdom and guidance for their daily financial decisions.

Daily Bible Readers Give More Generously

Daily Bible readers are more than twice as likely to give 10% or more of their income to God’s work at their church and other ministries. While many people might think that the amount of wealth a person has would determine the level of a person’s giving, it is actually a person’s spiritual discipline and Biblical convictions that determines if someone will be a faithful and generous giver. Daily Bible reading leads people to a conviction that God is their true Provider and they are to be generous with whatever resources God entrusts to them during their lifetime.

As the author of the bestselling www.GenerousLife.org 40 Day Bible devotional with over 400,000 copies in print, I have learned that if a church wants to inspire greater generosity and increased giving among the families in their congregation, it is vital to help get families into the Word of God on a daily basis. This practice more than anything else, will unleash generosity in a church that they have never before experienced.

For more details/graphs on the View from the Pew research (and the companion research among 1000 churches on giving, budgets, and financial/generosity teaching), go to: www.STATEofthePLATE.info

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TAGS: USA Bible reading debt daily financial decisions financial advice

[07/10/2010]

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