And when they had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshiped Him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Matthew 2:11 HCSB
“Bring the full tenth into the storehouse so that there may be food in My house. Test me in this way,” says the Lord of hosts, “See if I will not open the floodgates of heaven and pour out a blessing for you without measure”. Malachi 3:10 HCSB
In Matthew chapter 2, we are told of the Wise Men coming to see Jesus. They brought expensive gifts such as gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Now you may have read this and thought what use could a child have for expensive gifts such as these? Well, we will talk about the symbolism of these gifts later. Right now I want to talk about our gifts to our Lord and Savior. If the Wise Men brought gifts to Jesus, maybe this should tell us something.
You see, many years before this God instructed us through the prophet Malachi, to bring a tenth of what we were blessed with to God. James 1:17 tells us that every good and perfect gift comes from above. So, if God gives us a job and blesses us with money, then we should give ten percent back to Him. I can simplify it this way. You see, my husband and I share a like for the same candy which is Millionaires. You know those chocolate covered clusters of caramel and pecans. I can just taste one now. Anyway, it is not uncommon for one of us to buy that for the other one for Valentines Day or our anniversary. Now if one buys it for the other, then the buyer knows that the recipient is going to share so that makes us want to buy it for each other even more.
It’s kind of like that with our tithe. You see, God is the ruler of the universe. He doesn’t need anything from us, but He tells us in Malachi 3:10 to bring our tithes to Him and test Him to see that He will bless us beyond measure.
Now some of you are reading this and saying why is she talking about tithing right here at Christmas time when money is tight? Well, this is why. First of all because it is what God led me to talk about, but secondly it is to make you understand if money is tight, then perhaps it is because you are not tithing or not tithing properly. You see tithing means giving ten percent of all you are given. Last week our pastor said something that I had not thought of. He said that people ask him if they should tithe on the net or the gross? He said that his response has always been, “Do you want to be blessed a little or a lot”? The bottom line is that you can’t out give God. But when we short God or rob God as the Lord says in Malachi, then we are actually shorting ourselves in the blessing department.
I have put my ten percent into the offering plate at church when it made no sense to do so and God took good care of me. I don’t dare not tithe because in all honesty, I can’t afford not to tithe. I am telling you all this now, because this is a time when money is tight. I have actually talked to good, Christian friends who have been going through financial hardships only to realize that their spouse was not tithing properly. Giving a little bit here and there just isn’t how it’s done. Just as with everything else in our lives, the Bible has specific instructions on how to tithe. We are to give one tenth of everything we are blessed with to God. Now if you are not in church, then you are missing out all around and that is a whole other blog there. But I strongly encourage you to give one tenth back. This gives you 90 percent to spend and save. But I have learned the hard way that if you are stingy with that ten percent there won’t be any to save, just sayin’.
You want your children to be taken care of financially? Teach them to tithe. Teach them from an early age to give one tenth of all that they are blessed with back to God.
So if Christmas is really tight this year, look at what you are spending your money on. Did you give God a tenth before you started spending all your money? If not, there is your problem. Glad I could work that out for you.
Have a great day!