Many people outside the Church practice tithing (continued from yesterday).
People of other religions do it. I’ve seen modern financial books that I would consider “new age” that promote tithing in some form. They all receive a blessing for doing this. And yet too many of us in the Church look suspiciously at a pastor or don’t trust God enough to give the tithe and receive this blessing. Jesus is telling you here not to make that mistake. The principle works and that is one reason why He commands it. He does not command things of you to punish you. He knows how you will be blessed and He has provided a guidebook to help you be blessed. Use it! But when you do give faithfully out of duty, something interesting happens.
We realize that God really does bless us as we are faithful in giving Him the tithe He commands. Sometimes it’s amazing. We spoke earlier of stories where a person gets a check in the mail or an extra paycheck they weren’t expecting which helps them get by after dutifully tithing when it seemed impossible.Usually, it’s much more subtle. God does work in explosively miraculous ways, especially when we are young in faith. But the true life of the Kingdom is the slow almost imperceptible building of grace and blessing in our lives. In this case, you don’t pay a tithe today and the next day, win the lottery. But as you pay your tithe faithfully, your financial life just seems to be more and more blessed. You start noticing that you are handling real wealth that you did not before. The blessings mount up and add up in your life. (We are only talking about the tithe here, so if there is not sound financial management along with this you could be counteracting God’s blessing, but we will get to that subject later).
The tithe helps us understand that we are only stewards of the blessings that He gives us. When you begin to notice that your wealth accumulates faster, after giving away 10% faithfully, you begin to see that there is something more powerful going on here than you can fathom. It cannot be explained by the human mind, but you can see the power of God working in your everyday finances.
Tithing helps you to really understand that you are truly just a steward for God and not nearly as “in control” as you previously thought. And this understanding helps you to be a better steward of what He gives you.
What say you? We’d appreciate your input, so let us know.