David and I started attending WRC in February of 2003 and made our pledge to TTB in November of 2003. Both of us agreed on an amount we felt God was calling us to give, but we had no idea how we would get the money. We made the 3 year commitment and started paying a monthly amount that we had to take from our savings to cover each month. We faithfully gave the amount God asked us to for 17 months, and decided we would just have to wait another 3 years for a new house.
God was faithful every step of the way and we never had any financial trouble paying the monthly amount and diminishing our savings. He has always shown himself to be faithful to us, so we expected he would carry us through this time. We thought that our sacrifice was waiting to get a new house, but God just wanted to see our faith. In response to our faithfulness to give over the 17 months, God showed himself in a way we had never seen him before on April 6, 2005. This was the day of David's annual review at work. Two months prior to this day, God gave David a salary number to pray for. David was shocked at the amount God wanted him to pray for, because it meant his work would have to give him a 20% raise. This was HIGHLY unlikely. Raises are typically 3 or 4% and David was expecting to get a promotion, so his raise would most likely be higher because of that and he would get around 8%, but NOT 20%.
He prayed for the amount as God asked him to, but prepared himself to have to prove to his boss that he is worth that amount, so he did all the necessary research on the Internet and discovered that he is worth the exact amount God asked him to pray for. Well, the day for his review came and he was anxious to see what God did. They told him his merit raise first and that was what he was expecting, but then they started talking about his promotion and how that would be an additional raise. He was not aware that the promotion meant an additional raise. It never had before. They told him the additional amount and he couldn't believe it. They went over God's number by $100!
We were so thrilled and couldn't thank God enough for showing us his faithfulness at a whole new level. The raise God gave us has made our monthly TTB commitment easy. He gave us more than we needed to meet our commitment. All we can think to say is expressed in Ephesians 3:20-21. "Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen." Our testimony is not about money. It's about stepping out with mustard seed faith and seeing God like never before. Praise His name!