God is a giving God and He has a challenge for you. In only one location of Scripture does God tell His people to test Him in something. Wonder what that is? What would God possibly tell His people to test Him in? When Jesus was tempted by Satan, He quoted from Deuteronomy 6:16, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” Isn’t that interesting? We’re not to put God to the test. Except in this one area of our lives.
Test Me In This
10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.
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The Jewish people understood an important truth about reality. They understood that everything they had was a gift from God. That all of the things that were in their possession were simply given to them by God. God was the actual owner of their possessions. This is a truth that we end up pushing to the fringe of our faith, especially in our culture of independence and self-reliance.
We tend to give ourselves the credit for the things that we have. When we do this we are violating a basic truth about our reality. David declares this basic truth, “The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it” (Psalm 24:1). Everything you have, everything you are, yes, your very life is God’s not yours. We are all stewards of God’s things. He has given us the privilege to manage His resources and we are called and commanded to manage those resources for His glory and His kingdom. We don’t manage what is HIS for our glory and our kingdom. No! Everything we do should be for His glory and His kingdom.[Tweet “Everything you have, everything you are, yes, your very life is God’s not yours.”]
Notice he says, “BRING the whole tithe…” He doesn’t say, “give the whole tithe,” but he says bring. If I let you borrow a book of mine and you came to me a week later and said, “I’ve got this great book that I want to give you” and it was the book I let you borrow I would look at you funny because it’s already my book. You wouldn’t be giving me anything. You would be bringing me what is already mine. That is how you should think about the tithe. Everything you have is already God’s and you are simply bringing Him back what is already His.[Tweet “Everything you have is already God’s and you are simply bringing Him back what is already His.”]
Why the Tithe?
Why would God challenge us in tithing? Why would He tell us to test Him in our generosity?
Here are 3 reasons why God challenges us to tithe:
1) Tithing is an act of worship.
When we understand the basic truth that everything is God’s and not ours the picture becomes clear. By setting aside the first tenth of our resources to give back to God, we are putting Him first in our lives in a very real way. If you claim that Jesus is your LORD and SAVIOR, but you are not tithing then He is not LORD of your wallet. He calls every man and woman to surrender everything for His sake. We are not to hold back anything from Him. Tithing should be the starting point for all Christian generosity.
2) Tithing teaches us proper priorities.
God should be number 1 in your life. You are not to put anyONE or anyTHING above Him. When you give back the first 10% of your income to God, you are learning what it means to have proper priorities. If you are putting God number 1 in your life in the area of your finances, every other area of your life will come naturally. This is usually the last area that people will submit to God because it is the biggest thing they feel they have a right to. You may feel the same way. You worked hard for that money, it is yours, you earned it, you should get to do with it what you want. The Christian life, though, is a life of surrender to God’s will and ways.
3) Tithing is a command.
Many people want to debate this. They will say, “we are under a new covenant and God now loves a cheerful giver and I don’t feel cheerful when I tithe so God doesn’t want me to tithe” or something like that. To put it simply, that is terrible reasoning! If we want to use the new covenant for reasoning to alter the tithe command, we should consider raising the bar. In every way, Jesus took what the common interpretation of the Mosaic Law was and raised the bar. He made everything a heart issue and taught that the life God wanted for His followers was one of love and surrender. God does love a cheerful giver so what should you do if you don’t feel cheerful when you give?
Put God to the test in this and see what He does. I have a hard time understanding why someone would use the cheerful giver argument to justify why they don’t believe the tithe is important. Being a cheerful giver is a result of being changed by God’s grace and His Spirit. You probably WON’T feel cheerful when you begin to tithe, but you will eventually. After all, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive’ (Acts 20:35).
God Has a Challenge For You, Will You Accept the Challenge?
God is calling you out! Are you going to put Him to the test or are you going to continue acting as if you’re not ready to tithe or that you can’t afford to tithe? If you can’t afford to tithe you need to cut some things out of your life. God has called you out. What are you going to do? Let me encourage you: put Him to the test. Start tithing to your local church. Do it for 90 days and see what happens. It won’t be easy, but you won’t regret it.
All Scripture quoted above is from the NIV.
