Money is tight. Bills are due. Credit card is maxed out. New car is awesome. New clothes are cool. Specialty coffee is on sale. Dinner out is a must. The sitter is cheap, and the movie is one you have always wanted to see. You find enough loose change in your coat to make the early show.
Sunday rolls around again, and you have nothing to put in the plate – again.
Would it really be robbing God if you keep skipping that?
What’s with that tithing thing any way? Does it really matter? A tithe really cannot be a whole 10% can it?
The word tithe means tenth.
Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.
Malachi 3:8
If you are not giving God both tithes and offerings, I encourage you to look at your budget and see if you can remove something, and then give God both His tithes and His offerings. If you cannot seem to find a way then I encourage you to figure out a plan to get yourself into a position where you can.
Is there an excuse not to give? Sometimes we find ourselves in a position where we think we cannot give. Most of us really could skip something in order to give God what belongs to Him.
I think we struggle because we don’t see the tithe as belonging to God from the time we get paid. When we spend it, we are really spending God’s money.
What if you cannot give a lot because you do not make a lot of money? With God, it is not the total dollar amount that counts.
And he looked up, and saw the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury. And he saw also a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites. And he said, Of a truth I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all: For all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God: but she of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had.
Luke 21:1-4
How much is too much to give God? Consider this. God gave you 100% of what you have.
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.
Luke 6:38
Again, how much is too much to give God? Perhaps the better way to word that would be to ask yourself, how much do you want to be blessed?
LIFE APPLICATION
Key Focal Verse:
But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.
1 Peter 2:9-10
Today’s challenge is to closely examine your budget. Are you giving to the Lord? Are you tithing the full tithe? If not, perhaps there is something you can do without in order to give the Lord what already belongs to Him.