“Honour the LORD with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase: So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine. My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD; neither be weary of his correction:” Proverbs 3:9-11
My son, if you desire to get ahead spiritually and financially you must recognize God as the source of all blessings. You must give Him the “firstfruits” of everything he blesses you with. Tithes and offerings are acts of worship. The very first record of a desire to worship was when Cain and Able presented offerings to God. It is a direct acknowledgement of the sovereignty and lordship of God over all of the earth. Haggai 2:8 says that: “the silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the LORD of hosts”.
Malachi 3:10 instructs us to: “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house.”
Tithing is Biblical. Tithing as established by Abraham involves giving 10% of ones earnings to God and his work. Abraham honored the Most High God by freely giving back to him with a loving and grateful heart.
Son, I have found in my own life that God will take the nine-tenths after the tithe and make it go further than the full amount would have gone. I have also experienced times when I felt I could not afford to tithe and it seemed that my pockets had holes in them–for there were never enough.
Malachi 3:8 asks the question: “Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me.” You may say, “Wherein have we robbed thee? God replies, “You have robbed me in tithes and offerings”. God then curses them because they have withheld from him what is justly his. If we do not give it to him, we are stealing from him. That is a serious accusation. God can never bless you financially if you withhold finances from him.
Offerings are above our tithes. We are giving to God part of what is ours to live on. It is done as worship with a freewill and not by compulsion. He has been so good to us that we wish to bless his work in return. We need to realize that we cannot take any of our possessions into eternity, except what we have invested in his kingdom.
2 Corinthians 9:7 tells us how we should give. “Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.” Luke 6:38 assures us: “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.”
My son, we should never give to bribe God so that he will shower us with money and possessions. However, giving is a seed and if we sow it properly with the right attitude God will see that we reap a harvest not only in this life but also in the next. We do not give to get. A giving person gives out of a spirit of generosity in recognition of all the blessings that God has given to us. You can not out-give the Lord.
“Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the LORD of hosts. And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the LORD of hosts.” Malachi 3:10-12
My son, “I was young and now I am old…but I have on seen the righteous forsaken nor His seed begging bread.”
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