Trusting enough to give

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 3v10

I am not about to get involved in the great tithe debate. I will leave that for great minds and more spiritual men. However, there is great teaching here on giving.

God had told the people that they were robbing Him. ‘How?’ they asked. ‘With your tithes and offerings’ God replied.

I know that there were laws about giving in the Old Testament. I know the early church gathered offerings to pay the teachers and to meet the needs of the poor. I know that God loves a cheerful giver. I know that certain believers in the New Testament gave even out of their poverty. So even though I don’t know all about whether the tithe is for today or not I do know that God expects His people to be givers.

I also know that giving takes faith. Here God challenges the faith of the people by saying ‘bring in your tithes and offerings and see is I don’t bless you more than you can imagine.’

I wonder sometimes if we believe God when He says things like this. Do we believe God enough to give and trust Him with the results? These are tough times to give, supposedly, but it seems like most of us are still able to buy many of the things we really want. Many of us live on tight budgets, but few of us in the world we are accustomed to are cold or starving. Sadly, our problem is that we often are not willing to take a chance on missing our wants, much less our needs.

Giving is a part of God’s plan. Do we trust Him enough to try and see whether or not He can take care of us?