“Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing me!”

You ask, “How do we rob You?”

“By not making the payments of the tenth and the contributions. You are suffering under a curse, yet you-the whole nation-are still robbing Me. Bring a 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 3:8-11 HCSB

I know some of you are reading this and realizing that I used this verse recently in a post and are wondering when I will shut up about the tithing issue. Well, the reason I am discussing it today is that I give you what God gives me first of all, but also because God wants to bless you and I don’t want to see you shoot yourself in the foot, so to speak. Let me explain.

I’m sure some of you may remember my tithe story.  I was newly divorced having just returned to live in my home after spending several months with my parents. I sat down to pay my bills and paid everything and had only enough money left to pay my tithe plus 20.00. I only got paid every two weeks, so 20.00 would not cover all I needed for gas money much less food. Sunday morning I went to church and paid my tithe. Monday when I got home from work, I got my mail. I had a check for the same amount as my tithe check. God is good. I continued to tithe and He continued to take care of me financially.

I have also seen others who have listened to my tithe story and done the same thing and were amazed at the results.

Yes, I know some of you are sitting here saying that you can’t afford to tithe. Well, you’ve got that backwards my friend, you can’t afford not to.

I told you just the other day how I’ve had a number of things go wrong in the last few weeks. Allow me to tell you a little story of my last few weeks. About three months ago, I thought I needed tires for my vehicle. I called and they were 600.00, ouch. My husband told me that he thought my tires were fine, just what I wanted to hear.  I certainly didn’t want to shell out 600.00. A few weeks ago, he looked at my tires and told me that I should go ahead and get new tires. I braced myself to pay the 600.00  but when I called they were on sale and I got the whole set for 420.00. Right now, I know some of you are saying big deal, so allow me to continue. My husband and I took two trips out of town. One was a little two night getaway and another was just overnight for my husband and stepson to attend a concert while I spent some quality time with my future daughter-in-law.  While we enjoyed both immensely, they set us back a few bucks to say the least. But it was okay, we had planned for both. But after our second trip, things started to go wrong. Our pool was destroyed as I mentioned a few days ago, my dog got sick, still I was doing okay.  Our barbecue pit needed replacement. We had the money to replace it, so we bought a nice one. The very next day the alternator went out on my car. I had been planning a short trip with some friends for the end of the month. I still thought I would be okay. I figured I could pay for the alternator and the deposit for my trip and thought things would be a little tight, but they would be okay.  I was wrong. The alternator costs over twice what I thought it would. This left me with no deposit for my trip. I told my husband that I would have to cancel. He had pity on me and offered to help with the alternator so I could pay my deposit. About now, you are  probably wondering where I’m going with this story.  Bear with me just a bit longer.

Two days ago, I sat down and wrote out my bills. When everything was paid, I was realizing that we were going to have to really scale back this month. I prayed about my trip and almost cancelled,  but I wrote my tithe check first and trusted God to guide me. I did not feel that God was telling me to cancel and as my friends had given me the money for their deposits, I added mine in and paid the deposit. This was at around 8 yesterday morning. I got my mail yesterday afternoon and had a check in there that was 90.00 more than the cost of the alternator plus the cost of my portion of the deposit.

It was 1989 when I wrote that tithe check and dropped it in the envelope in total faith knowing that I couldn’t live on 20.00 for two weeks.  But, God provided. I realized that day that my mistake had been writing my tithe check last.  I now write it first. I could have dipped into my savings, which I thought I was going to have to do yesterday. I do have an emergency fund, but in all honestly I didn’t want to use it. Thanks to God, I didn’t have to.

Our scripture passage begins with talk about robbing God. My friend, if you are not giving God at least one tenth of all you have, the only person you are robbing is yourself. If you are not trusting God with your time and your finances, I can assure you that you never seem to have enough of either, right? If you want peace from the chaotic life you are living, give it all over to God.

If you want to be blessed financially, give God one tenth. He doesn’t need your money, he literally has all the money in the universe. Everything in the world already belongs to Him. He wants to know that you trust Him. He wants to know that you have faith that He will provide for you.  Won’t you trust Him to do that today. Give Him the first and the best of your time. Give Him one tenth of the income that He so graciously blessed you to receive. I promise you that He will be true to His word. He will open the floodgates and bless you without measure.

This check I received yesterday came from a source that I didn’t even realize existed. I had prayed the day I found what my alternator was going to cost for God to guard my finances and that is exactly what He did.

Are you robbing God? If you are, know that you are robbing yourself? That’s just crazy, right? Spend time with God, give him one tenth of what He gives you and see how you will be blessed. Don’t take my word for it, try it for yourself.

Have a great day!