Seven Fundamental Practices: Tithing

Continued from here.

The practice of tithing was perhaps the fundamental practice that I resisted the most. The bottom line was that I did not want to do it. I had many reasons that I won’t elaborate on in this blog entry, but underneath all of those reasons was that I simply just did not want to.

I used to believe that nobody actually gives 10% of their paycheck to their church. I was shocked to learn in a Bible study that I was the odd man out. This was a Bible study through work, and none of us attended the same church. So, nobody in the study had a vested interested in getting me to tithe. Because none of them would receive any sort of tangible benefit from me tithing or suffer any sort of detriment from me not doing so, I was more open to hearing their perspectives. After hearing all of my objectives, one member said the following to me with a big grin on his face:

Grace, you’re making this too complicated. It really is simple: Everything you have belongs to God! You don’t own it – you are a steward. God has told you where to spend 10% of His money, and then you get to spend the other 90% on whatever you want.

I had never considered that perspective – that God owns everything and that He allows me to choose how to spend 90% of what he entrusts to me.

I decided to test God on His promise about financial blessing through obedience. Can you guess what happened? God was true to His word. God tested me on my obedience a few times, allowing the coffers to get low to see if I would continue to tithe. I did, and He always replenished the funds before I ran out. Years later, God revealed a powerful truth to me that I’ll need to write about another time. The short version was that God placed powerfully on my heart that He would have to cease to be God to break his promise in Malachi 3:10.

If you need further reassurance, check out my blog entry on sowing & reaping. Tithing is the mechanism God uses to provide for all of your physical needs (what to eat, drink, and wear). Start tithing, and you’ll never have to worry about God meeting those physical needs again!

[Graphic: Cartoon of Grace smiling and throwing money in the air. Courtesy Bitmoji.]