Tithing is between you and God

[VERMAURICE BROWN]

Tithing is between you and God

Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be
food in mine house, and test me now herewith, saith the
Lord of hosts, if I will not open for you the windows of
heaven, and pour out for you a blessing, that there shall
not be room enough to receive it.
-Malachi 3: 10-

Tithing is one of God’s rules. Tithing is not a test to see how much money the church can raise, tithing is a test of faith to help us grow in our relationship with Christ.

Tithing is bringing 10% of the increase of my wealth to the Lord. Anytime you receive more wealth as in paychecks, sales of cashed out items, etc… you are increasing your wealth and God is asking for 10% of what that figure is.

The earliest biblical reference is 4600 years ago when Abram got through a war fairly unscathed and rescued his relative Lot. The Bible mentions that Abram then went to Melchizedek, a king and a priest of God, and gave him a tenth of everything he owned (Genesis 14:20).
Another early place we see the tithe is in Numbers 18:21 where Moses gives the people a law of God telling them to bring all their tithes to the priests.

In the New Testament Jesus assumed the old law was the rock bottom expectation of the Christian. According to Jesus, his followers should not only give according to the law but also a whole lot more.

Tithing is evidence of a growing faith. Tithing and faith are intricately connected. It takes faith to tithe, especially to get started. When we tithe we are stating that we are practicing faith, that God will do what he says he will do regardless of how likely I am to see it happening.

In John 12 there is a story of Mary, not Jesus’ mother, but a Mary who went to Macy's and bought the most expensive perfume. She poured it on Jesus feet but Judas protested saying the money should not have been spent on perfume at all but should have been put in the disciples money bag and used to feed the poor. Of course the only reason Judas threw in the bit about the poor was because that was his best chance of getting people to put money in the bag that he regularly embezzled from. So what Judas was really saying was, "Don’t take that money away from me… I want that money." Let’s exchange the biblical word for "money bag" to "offering plate." When we don’t give our tithes to the Lord aren’t we saying "I don’t want this money to go to the Lord, I want this money?"

Malachi 3:8 warns us about stealing from God. How do we rob God?...

We rob God in when we don’t return his money to him. Now that you know, would you willing rob from God?

In Luke 16:11 Jesus makes an amazing statement: "If you cannot be trusted with worldly wealth, how can God trust you with true riches?" Jesus makes it plain that there is a connection between how we spend our money on earth and how we will spend eternity. That puts a whole different spin on spending.

There are only two times that the phrase "floodgates of heaven" are used in the Bible. The first time was before it had ever rained and Noah had build a boat in preparation for a flood. The Bible says that God then opened the "floodgates of heaven" and the deluge that resulted in a global flood helps us define what "floodgates of heaven" means. The second time is in Malachi 3:10 in reference to blessings being poured out on tithers. Sometimes I don’t feel like God has exactly opened the "floodgates of heaven" on me after a lifetime of tithing but that might be a very narrow and blind view of life. Certainly in comparison with 95% of the world I live in great wealth. Who knows what my life would be like without God’s blessing, I shudder at the thought. Maybe you need to ask God to reveal how the "floodgates" have changed your life or maybe you need to start tithing if you want to experience the "floodgates of heaven." Let’s take this time to consider the brutal truth about ourselves before the Lord and allow Him to reveal your next step; but before he reveals anything, let’s let him know that we will obey what ever he asks of us. Amen