As I was growing up in the church, I remember my parents talking about how they were against tithing. They did give, but without commitment. This stuck with me until a few years ago when I listened to a Board member in the Church describing his experiences with tithing. They were all positive! The more he gave, the more he was blessed.Elaine and I, as new Christians, were impressed with this testimony and decided to give it a try. This was not an easy decision at the time. I was newly retired from industry, working as a handyman to sort of make ends meet while trying to improve the Acreage for horses. ( Hint: Don't buy your horses before you have cleared land, built fences, and obtained basic knowledge on horses) Sorry for the aside, but it did cost a lot of money.
It would have been easy to say "Fine, we'll continue on, and give 10% after taxes, food, lodging, horses etc." But where does that place God in the heirarchy? Dead last!
We decided that we would do it right, and tithe on all income from pension, earnings, investments etc. up front. Not an easy choice at the time.
Do Not Rob God
Will a man rob God?
Yet you have robbed Me!
But you say,
‘In what way have we robbed You?’
In tithes and offerings.
You are cursed with a curse,
For you have robbed Me,
Even this whole nation.
Bring all the tithes into the storehouse,
That there may be food in My house,
And try Me now in this,”
Says the Lord of hosts,
“If I will not open for you the windows of heaven
And pour out for you such blessing
That there will not be room enough to receive it.
11 “And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes,
So that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground,
Nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field,”
Says the Lord of hosts; Malachi 3:10-11
Surprisingly ( or maybe not so), we did not miss the 10% at all! We have had many blessings poured out on us after this practice was put into place:
1: Things were tight and I was praying for some work. A fellow who had never been to our place, found us and asked if I had any experience in metal roofing. That one week job turned into 6 weeks.
2.We were discussing on how to get totally out of debt, a situation that both of us said was not possible! Well, by declaring that we would do this, within a year we had paid off the mortgage, our credit balance and the impossible was done. During this period we also increased the amount we were tithing!
Those are the big ones. There were a bunch more blessings on the acreage that allowed things to happen that were beyond our means at the time.
As far as I know, this is the only place in the Bible where God says "Try me". He has been proven true to His promise!
What about you? Do you tithe? How? And, how have your experiences been?
