If you decided to read this after the title, this applause is for you...( insert applause here.)
I know this is not what everyone wants to hear, read, or do most of the time but just hear me out. I'll try and make it as painless as possible. If it helps this is not the topic I wanted, but God put it on my spirit so strongly I couldn't ignore it!
Let me start out by saying God doesn’t need our money. He asks for it and desires our obedience. He wants us to want to give. Our Father desires us. His desire for us is more than His need for us or our money, but the way we show Him our love is through our obedience! Obedience in anything and everything.
Tithing is special because God doesn’t simply ask us to give it “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house.” He follows it with “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." Malachi 3:10.
No where else in the entire bible does God say to test Him EXCEPT when it comes to tithing. Think about the significance of God putting that kind of power in our hands. He asks for something, if we choose to obey (show Him we love Him), He then says He will do something huge for us!
A tithe is 10% of your income given specifically to the church. The word tithe literally means tenth in Hebrew. It’s not always much but sometimes it’s everything. God says He will give us so much back that we will not have room for it!! In explanation, it seems easy. However, the hard part is actually doing it. Trust me, I feel the same way about that being the hard part!
It’s not always easy when we see the amount whether small or big knowing it will cover something or part of something we have to pay in our minds, right? What if, God being God does what He does and multiplies the 10% by hmm I don't know, floodgates?
Sometimes, it takes you being tired of struggling financially in order for you to just do it one day. Trust God to do His part, then time passes and out of the blue God opens the floodgates! Sometimes you do it because you feel a nudge in your spirit, and you keep doing it because of the constant nudge. Then...floodgates.
Maybe your situation is like my family’s, and it didn’t happen with a shower of free stuff and money flying to your front door. About 5 years ago we felt the need to start tithing. My husband is the sole provider in our household of now 5 people. We own a landscaping business and though there are weekly maintenance yards we get paid for, most of the time it's pay by the job. Anything extra is an opportunity to make more. The jobs depend on the needs or wants of the customer. Our income is never the same, which makes it hard to plan our expenses accordingly, especially with kids.
At the time God had started speaking to us about tithing, we also needed to hire an employee or two who would also need to be paid to provide for their family. Not everything could be done with 3 workers in one truck, or one trailer, or one piece of yard equipment. More work is great, but it takes more equipment and employees. All of which require us to put more money into it. Not to mention repairing equipment when needed and all the gas two trucks and all the equipment use. Also on our tab. Projects that were taken on usually required us to buy everything first then get reimbursed and hopefully make a profit to be worthwhile. Some weren’t worth it, but we had to take them even if our employees made all the money and we made none or minimal because one person can only do so much. We couldn’t risk losing a reliable worker at that time either.
Even though we were pushed to the limit financially, we obeyed what God was telling us to do. Till this day, we have no explanation as to how every single need got paid except...GOD. It didn’t seem like a floodgate was opened, though we ate out more often than we ate in, went on fun trips, and were even able to make some unnecessary purchases. Looking back, it definitely was floodgates being opened, as much as I've ever experienced floodgates being opened!
Our bills since then have only grown, and I can’t say we always trusted when we gave, but we gave. I do know without a doubt, God always came through. I have so many more testimonies of the provisions of the Lord because of our obedience in tithing that I can go on forever, but this is Gwen's blog to the Lord not mine lol. I pray this or a bit of this ramble may be of use to someone. More than anything, I hope God is glorified because He is worthy and so faithful! I encourage you to pray about it, but don’t wait. Test Him and watch!
Meet Norma and her beautiful family. Norma was one of the first friends I made when I moved here to Midland TX. As I've mentioned in past blog posts, Making friends as an adult is difficult. But more difficult than that is making couples friends. Having them as friends to both me and my husband but also kids who love to play together is such a blessing. Norma has walked out some challenges in her life and continued to follow Jesus regardless of her situation. I pray her testimony on giving will show you just a glimpse into the obedient life she lives.
-Gwen