Don't Withhold A Greater Blessing

December 26, 2025

by James Harvey

As I was preparing a message to send to our partners, givers, and advocates at the end of 2025, the Holy Spirit reminded me of one of the most important fundraising conversations of my 17-year advocacy journey.

Early on, when I was just getting started raising my own support, I became quickly discouraged by the first few “no’s.” I was brand new to fundraising, and I knew Americans were generous people, so I assumed that everyone I invited to partner with my missionary work would say “Yes! Where do I send the check??”

Instead, I found myself meeting with people, sharing what God had called me to do, inviting them to get involved financially only to hear, “no,” or “not right now.”

One Friday evening at a family dinner, I shared my frustration with my wife’s father, Tommy. I told him how discouraged I was, how hard it was to keep asking. How I was considering giving up and just getting a normal job.

He listened, then said something that stayed with me.

“James, I know what that’s like. But don’t give up. Keep sharing your vision and inviting people to help you. You’re inviting them into a greater blessing from God when they partner with you. If you stop asking people to help, you’re withholding a greater blessing from them.”

At the time, I thought he was crazy. I didn’t understand it. Honestly, I was already discouraged, and what he said felt unhelpful.

But over the years, as I stayed in the fight, built generosity relationships, and watched God work through senders sending the sent, I began to understand how deep and profound his words really were.

“There is greater joy in giving than in receiving.”

Acts 20:35 (GNT)

This greater joy >> this greater blessing, is about fulfilling our destiny. It’s about stepping into our eternal design to give, to help the weak, and to invest together in the Great Commission, so that every tribe, tongue, nation, and people group can hear the Good News of Jesus’ resurrection and soon return.

For many years, when I thought about fundraising, I focused almost entirely on need, and on what I could accomplish if the funding came through. My approach was more contractual: You give _____, and I can produce _____.

What Tommy offered me that night was something deeper, more powerful: a lesson in faith and wisdom. When we invite people to invest in the Great Commission, we aren’t taking from them. We’re inviting them to live according to how God designed them. He made us to share. He made us to give. He created us to participate. He wired us to support the ones he sets apart to go out to all the nations.

And beyond that, Jesus invites every one of his disciples into a greater blessing: to work together so that those he sends can fully focus on their harvest fields.

The senders give big and often so the sent can fully focus and stay faithful.

That’s how I want to end this year —-> by inviting you to begin investing in global missionaries. Whether that means giving through a sending agency like Blazing Trees, or supporting a missionary directly through their support account, however you choose to do it, just do it. Come on, let’s go!!

You won’t regret this decision. And you’ll experience something greater, more wonderful than you knew was even possible.

You won’t one day wish you hadn’t given to those who have sold all they have, left for the ends of the earth, and are laboring in difficult and dangerous places so the Great Commission can finally be finished.

And if you’re not sure where to start, hit the Contact button on our website and let’s talk.

May you receive the greater blessing today… not by obligation, but because you love Jesus with all your heart, and you can clearly see that every single follower of Jesus has the capacity to support at least one missionary.

Shalom. Maranatha.