Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me!
But you say, ‘In what way have we robbed You?’
In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse, for you have robbed Me, even this whole nation. Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and try Me now in this,” says the LORD of hosts.
“If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it. …”     Malachi 3:8-10 HCSB

That dirty five letter word I’m talking about is tithe. This is what is referred to in this Scripture passage. Tithing is when we return one tenth of what the LORD has given us back to Him. The prophet Malachi is warning the Israelites of coming judgement for the violations they have committed. One is withholding tithes and offerings. Some like to disregard the Old Testament as history, but remember it has the Ten Commandments in it and I strongly advise you not to disregard those. It also tells us to tithe, but if you keep reading, you will see that the New Testament talks about giving as well.

Televangelists always encourage you to give to them, but this is something that is rarely spoken in our local churches today. This is sad because tithing assures us we will never go without. When we tithe faithfully, God takes good care of us.  Many people don’t want to come to church and have a preacher stand up and talk about giving money when they feel they have no money to spare. What’s sad is, if they continue to not tithe, their financial situation will only get worse. Maybe the fact that our nation has turned its back on God is why we are in the dire financial situation we are in today, but that’s a whole other blog.

As for me, my mother taught me from a very early age to tithe. Any time I was paid for work, no matter how small the amount, my mom taught me that ten percent of that went back to God or His church. If I was paid a dollar, then I gave back ten cents.

In my mid 20’s I found myself divorced after a few short years of marriage. I moved in with my parents for a couple months until the community property was settled and then returned to my home. The first month back in my home, as I sat down to pay my bills, I paid everything except my tithe. When everything was paid, I had a choice. I could pay my tithe and have 20 dollars left to last me two weeks or I could keep my tithe and have just enough to get me by until my next paycheck. I knew this would be the same each month as my pay and my bills would be the same. I wrote that tithe check. The next morning, I sat in church nervous about paying my tithe. The devil kept reminding me that 20 dollars wouldn’t be enough for one week, much less two weeks. But when the plate came around, I had to pay my tithe and trust in God. The very next day, I received a check in the mail from my insurance company saying I had overpaid them. The amount was just a little more than my tithe had been. It left me enough to tithe on the check and still have enough to live on for the next two weeks. Within a week, I got a call from a former employer asking me to come back to work on a part-time basis. A week later, I got a call from someone asking to rent my grandmother’s old house which belonged to me, but had been vacant for about a year. I paid my tithe as my mother had always taught me to do and God blessed me beyond measure.

I have heard many other stories of similar happenings that I could share with you, but it would take all day.

I don’t care how well you are doing financially, if you are not tithing you are missing out on God’s blessing. God wants to bless you, but you must be willing to faithfully tithe. I say faithfully tithe, because when times are hard we tithe strictly on faith. We are told in Luke 6:38 to give and it will be given to us, “Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be given back to you.”

My friend if you are thinking you can’t afford to tithe, let me assure you- you can’t afford not to. You don’t want to rob God. Think about that one.

Have a great day!