So what do you give to someone who has everything? I don’t have everything, but God has been good to me through the years and I have everything that I want and my kids find it exceedingly difficult to buy me a Christmas or birthday present. I plead with them not to buy a gift for me, and I tell them that I sincerely do not want or need anything, but they have some sort of innate urge to buy a present for me anyway.
This year all of my sons and their wives resolved the problem. Much to my delight they all gave generous gifts to The Jesus Alliance. I don’t see how they could have possibly given me anything that I loved more and I was really proud of them.
I was thinking about this today and I thought of God. He literally owns everything in the world and doesn’t need anything; however He desires our love. When He setup His laws He commanded us to give 10% of our income back to Him and over and above that we are told to give gifts commensurate to His blessings upon our lives.
Why?
It seems that if He already owns everything He could finance the work of His church in some other way like maybe discovering oil, gold, or diamonds on the church property.
Nope he desires that His church members give back some of what He has given us and that is how He has chosen to finance the work of his church.
This proves to be a real challenge to many people. I read that the number one reason many people will not attend church is because they claim that when they do go, all the pastor talks about is their having to give “their” hard earned money to the church.
Hmmm . . . If anyone out there thinks that the money they have in their bank account or wallet is “their” hard earned money, please show me how you plan to take that money from this life into the next. No dear friends all of the money in the world already belongs to God and not to you. He is allowing you to use it for a while as His steward or manager, but trust me we are all one failed heartbeat away from giving it all back to Him without so much as a moment’s notice.
God doesn’t command us to tithe or give gifts to the church because He needs the money, rather because He wants us to be faithful and obedient. When you think about it, giving is probably the best test of faith that He has at his disposal. Giving isn’t like going to church and spending one hour per week before heading to the links; it is like giving up money that can be spent on YOU. To make matters worse you may never see the end result of what is accomplished in God’s name through your tithe or gift.
I’m sure that God thought of all of that and He watches with interest those who choose to demonstrate their faith through their pocketbooks, and those who do not. Statistics show that only a small minority of believers tithe, much less give gifts above and beyond the tithe. I’m sure that is distressing to God.
I think the pride I felt in my kids coming up with that great idea is but a small sampling of how it makes God feel to see those who are faithful cheerfully obey this command. I’m sure He was watching with a huge smile on His face as they wrote those checks, and the same for when they tithe. They love God and want to follow His commands as best they know how and this is one test that is difficult for many folks.
The Bible states in Malachi 3:8 that to withhold your tithe from the Lord is akin to robbing God. “Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me. “But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’ “In tithes and offerings.
Yikes how stupid is robbing God?
On the other hand “The words of Malachi, reaffirmed by Jesus in the New Testament, promise those who bring their tithes into the storehouse that the Lord will open ‘the windows of heaven, and pour [them] out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it” (Malachi 3:10).
It seems that we either believe what God has said or not. We can choose to either rob God and endure the consequences of that folly, or we can obey and receive blessings that we cannot fathom.
Hmmm . . . It seems that thinking people would take the longer term approach of looking after the well-being of our souls before that of our bodies.
We need to trust God. He has blessings ready for us, but because of the weakness of our faith and the narrowness of our desires, we sometimes cannot receive them. It’s still not too late to give to the Lord this year and receive a tax deduction. It is also an excellent time of year to setup a recurring gift to your church and/or favorite non-profit and be done with even having to remember it or be tempted to skip it on a certain week.
The Lord tells us to test him on this and see if He will not open the windows of heaven. I can attest that it has worked exceedingly well for me for many years and it will work for you. And lest you be one of those who claims that tithing is Old Testament teaching, please understand that in several places Jesus reaffirmed it. While some argue that tithing is an Old Testament principle, and Jesus never taught it, we simply should make them aware of Matthew 5:17 in which Jesus said He came to fulfill the law, not abolish it.
Mal. 3:10
Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.
December 30, 2014 – Click here to listen