Want to Be “Overjoyed” With Your Finances?

Since their marriage in 2009, Tommy and Kathy Johnson have discovered the blessings that come with giving.

Tommy says, “It's gotten to the point to me where it's fun…it's just fun to give and-and see what happens, you know?”

Early on though, giving was the furthest thing from their minds. A year before they married, tommy relocated to Gulfport, Mississippi to take a position with the state’s “Emergency Management Agency.” Kathy came later, hoping to find work managing a frame shop. But after months of unemployment and three years of unstable work, the couple was forced to tap into their savings just to get by.

Tommy shares, “There was a lot of sleepless nights wondering, ‘What are we going to do?’"

Kathy describes, “He would add up the amount of the bills and add up what was in the checkbook and he's like, ‘We're going to have to wait, or do something on one or it's just not adding up.’ I was just praying the whole time, “God, something's got to open up, change for us."

Then in 2013, Kathy finally found a job with a frame shop in Gulfport. Around that time, they joined a small group at their church, where they were doing a study on tithing.

Kathy explains that, “You're supposed to give 10% of your earnings to God first off and I never really understood that, how important it was. And if you do this and you're obedient to God, it will just come back to you, you know, 10-fold.”

The couple started tithing, but when faced with bills, it was sporadic. Then, they learned in their group study another aspect of being obedient to God.

Kathy says, “You've just got to step out in faith. If it wasn't for God, you wouldn't have anything – nothing belongs to us. So how hard should it be to give him back what's already His?”

Once the couple started tithing consistently, they felt God leading them to give more. So they took another step of faith and became CBN 1000 Club members.

Tommy remembers, “I had the bills laid out on one side and the check money laid out on this side, and I would make myself make that first check out to giving. I just let God handle the rest. Every stroke of the pen was a stroke of faith.”

Kathy and Tommy believe that as they gave in obedience and faith, God met their every need.

Tommy shares, “Unexpected money would come in the mail, a refund or-or an extra job, or a check for some work that one of us had done that we had forgotten about. It was always there.”

And the blessings kept coming when in 2014 Kathy was offered a better-paying job as a restaurant manager.

Kathy says, “I mean, that to me was huge. That was huge!”  

Tommy says, “It was almost like God was teaching us to be more faithful.”

Today, Tommy and Kathy continue to enjoy the blessings that come with giving in obedience and faith.

Tommy describes, “We are able to give more than we've ever given and we have more than we've ever had. I’m overjoyed. Overwhelmed. Yeah!”

Kathy shares, “He's the ultimate provider. And he will provide. He will.”