Blessings poured out!

I’ve been blogging a LOT about tithing.

I think that anyone who is a Christ follower should be tithing.

I think many Christ followers are misinformed about tithing.

I think that when people hear the word “tithe”, this is the image that smacks them in the brain.

I think many preachers mislead Christ followers about tithing (whether intentionally or not).

I think many Christ followers begin tithing out of guilt, which leads them to eventually stop tithing.

I think many people are taught that if they tithe, they will receive their money back, plus more, as a blessing from God.

I don’t think this is usually the case.

I can’t find the scriptures that reference money as something that God really wants you to be motivated by.

I can find lots of scriptures that make it really clear that money is NOT something you should worship.

I CAN find scriptures where God wants you to be motivated by LOVE, OBEDIENCE, GRACE, FAITH, and WORSHIP, among other things.

So, do my wife and I feel that God blesses us because we tithe? ABSOLUTELY. But not always financially.

We are blessed more than we deserve to be.

• I am unemployed (no income from me for over a year now).
• We have two healthy and beautiful daughters (more blessings)(and many more expenses).
• My wife works for a municipality (not getting rich there).
• I go to school full-time.

We have the perfect combination of events that should be making us struggle financially.

We don’t.

 

We are always blessed with what we need. There have been times when we didn’t even know how we were going to make ends meet, but God has always shown up in a very clear and evident way.

We have dealt with job-loss, health problems, medical procedures, family emergencies, and other events with no problem. These are all just more reasons why we worship. Our faith is fully in our God.

Did I mention that I am pursuing my bachelors degree, full-time, without paying a dime out-of-pocket?

But the thing is, God blesses us in other ways because of our obedience and our worship. He blesses us with an amazing relationship. Our marriage is strong and full of love.

He blesses us with our daughters. They are healthy, beautiful, and extremely intelligent.

He blesses us with our faith. We have no doubts that God has our best interests for His mission in mind. We have the peace in believing that He has His hand in all things.

We show our faith in God by giving Him what little we have, even when we don’t know how we will make ends meet, out of worship and obedience. Our faith is rewarded for this obedience, thereby strengthening our faith in other areas.

God makes good on His promises!

Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see. –Hebrews 11:1

Faith isn’t faith until it is actually put to the test. Until then it’s just a really awesome word that Christians like to use to sound Christiany.

We tithe as a way of worshiping our loving, giving, faithful, and awesome God.

We are honored to tithe. We have NEVER regretted it.

I pray that if you are still reading this, then you are ready to begin tithing faithfully. In my next post I’m going to share some very easy steps to get started. The biggest step is the decision to start and the belief that honoring God with your money is more important than doing anything else with your money.

I’m not going to say that you should pray about whether you should tithe or not. I think that command and expectation by God is pretty clear.

I will say that you should be praying that God moves in your heart so that you will feel honored to worship God with your money and that He will give you the courage to tithe faithfully.

We have NEVER regretted tithing. You won’t either.