Cheerful Giving

Malachi 3:8; "Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings."


For someone who has never tithed it is sometimes hard for them to start doing so. If a person would read the Bible on tithing it would make it so clear to them and they would probably want to tithe (there was a time Dave and I didn't believe it was in the Bible, how wrong we were). It some cases people want to accept the Lord as their savior but they don't want to go any further, or perhaps they want to join a church but that is all of it. They are missing out on so much by doing this. They are missing out on blessings that just won't stop. When we obey we are blessed above all things. Praise Him, praise Him.

I want to share a very short story about Dave and me. When we were first married we didn't have very much money, we lived from paycheck to paycheck. We just didn't believe we had the money to tithe but decided to give $5 a week. We were blessed over and over. We had the money to pay bills, we were never in the need of anything. We would even go to the show once every week or two. Dave and I never stopped to think how much it would be if we tithed on $39.40 a week. We just gave what we thought we could give. It was many, many years later when I was thinking about it and it was then I realized we were giving more than we had to. I just couldn't wait to tell Dave about it. Even though we were giving more than we had to, we were giving with a joyful heart and God blessed us for it.

How many times have we robbed God? I think it is more than we want to think about. If you want to stop and think about it, we don't really own anything. Everything we have belongs to God. God created each one of us and we really could not take our next breath without God allowing us to. Our families were given to us by God, we have our homes because He gave them to us, our grandchildren are His also. Everything we have belonged to God and then He gave to us. All He is asking of us is to give back to Him just a little bit of it, which is a tenth of it. The Hebrew word for "tithe" literally means "a tenth part."

Malachi 3:10; "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."

When we give our tithing to our storehouse (our church), we are giving money to support God's work and ministers with tithes and offerings. By giving our tithes and offerings we are showing our love and devotion to Him. We are helping to further God's kingdom. The blessings that accompany our faithfulness in financial giving will be in this lifetime and the hereafter.

II Corinthians 9:7; "Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or out of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver." When we think about all God has done for us and the blessings He has given us why wouldn't we want to give something in return? When we think about the "Great Gift" He gave to us, we should want to give to further God's work with a cheerful heart.

God has given us "stewardship" of the money He has entrusted us with. We need to show Him we do know how to take care of the money He has entrusted us with. Luke 12:42; "And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward who his lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them that portion of meat in due season?" We can be faithful and obedient, watching and being spiritually ready for the Lord's return which can be at any time. So, we need to take care of everything God has entrusted us with.

Matthew 6:24; "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon." Mammon means money or valuable possessions. Jesus states without a doubt a person cannot serve God and money at the same time. Serving money is to place a high value on it causing us to place our trust and faith in it and desiring it more that God's righteousness. One can accumulate so much wealth that it becomes the most important thing in their life and God's glory is no longer first.

Who is your God? Mine is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is my everything and I pray He is yours too.

Blessings!!