God sent a warning through the prophet Malachi to the Israelites concerning their unacceptable stewardship of the Lord's provisions. They were not using the resources God had given them according to godly principles. He warned them to stop robbing Him of the tithe that was rightfully His. In biblical times, a tithe was a tenth of everything the person had. They could use the other 90% for anything they wanted but He deserved 10% of everything: their money, their crops, their animals, and all other resources. That tenth belonged to Him.
But really, God owns 100 percent of everything we own and have and He owns the entire creation (Ps 50:10-12). He created the heavens and the earth and everything in them. Every star, every planet, every tree, every animal. He created them all so He owns them all. Everything that has breath was created by Him and for Him (Gen 1: 1-30) so therefore He owns it all. This is a fact that bears heavily on our resources today. God owns it all. He doesn't just own the 10%, He owns everything.
God has appointed us ... His children ... to be good stewards of what He owns. To Adam and Eve and to all their descendants He gave the privilege and the responsibility of taking care of everything He created.
We, good stewards, make good use of everything He has given to us and return the rest to God. He provides for us in abundance and we are to use what we need and to take care of the rest ... returning it to Him.
There is no set percentage for giving today but we are still under the principles that God has established. Since it all belongs to Him, do we give to Him first? Before we pay the bills and before we eat out or go shopping? We are not under the rule of tithing today but it gives us a good place to start. I am convinced that if we give that 10% first, before we do anything else with our money, it pleases Him. We aren't to give out of our excess or over-abundance, but we're to give out of our total assets, and trust God to make up the difference.
So, are we required to tithe? No. Should we tithe? That's up to each one of us. No matter what or when we give back to God, let us do so eagerly, recognizing that He owns it all anyway and it pleases Him when we give. "Each [person] should give what he had decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver" (2Cor 9:7). The question remains: Will we trust God enough to give first, before our expenses? If we give that 10% at the start of each month, we won't have to feel guilty if we run out at the end of the month. God has promised to provide. Do we trust Him? Nothing gets to the heart of our Christian walk quite like the subject of tithing does. We aren't required to tithe, but do we tithe anyway?
This is a bit difficult to write about. Tithing. But it was something I wanted to gel my own thoughts around. To articulate my own feelings. When we are convinced that it all belongs to God anyway, it isn't as hard to give as it is otherwise. We are so quick to jump in and explain how we aren't under the rules of tithing ... and we aren't ... but it usually takes us a little longer to realize that we're still under the principle of giving and that God owns it all anyway so we're just giving back to Him what He gave us in the first place. There is a certain joy that we get only from giving. Have you found that to be true? I most certainly have. It's that comforting sense of contribution we get each time we drop our gift in the offering. Yes, there is definitely joy in giving. Everything we do should bring glory to our heavenly Father. And this includes our giving. There is a definite percentage of people who get their feathers ruffled every time tithing is mentioned. I hope none of my readers fall into that category and if any of you do, I encourage you to prayerfully take the matter before the Lord and listen to His thoughts on things.
********
You know, I didn't realize how really difficult it was coming up with names for my blogs until I started numbering them. The numbers make it so much easier. I just type in the number and then go with the flow! It leaves me so much more time to actually write.
Our grandson is going to be over in a bit to "interview" Michael for a class assignment. My granddaughter "interviewed" me a few years ago when she had the same assignment. It's kind of a fun thing to do and it helps out the kids with getting their assignments done. Hopefully Pepper won't be too big a problem. He just doesn't like to share this house with anyone except us. I'll probably need to hold him so I think I'm going to let this email be it for the day. I need to get my chores done and get dressed before he gets over here. I have no plans for today so your guess is as good as mine when it comes to accomplishments, things I hope to get done. There's always housework to do and I need to get some done since we're going to be gone tomorrow with our shopping and visiting with my sisters. It will definitely feel good to see them again. Seems like it's been so long since we've all been together. It has, it's been months! If gas were not as expensive as it is now we'd make it a point to get over to visit with them a lot more often.
I haven't heard from Betty but surely she's home by this time. It's just got to be one of the hardest things she's ever done, getting through this time. Again, Lord, I ask that You comfort the family and friends. Get them through these first few painful days. When something like this happens we're convinced that our days can't possibly go by without them. And then, before we know it, it's suddenly been so incredibly long since we've seen them. I wrote a couple blogs on time and time management Halloween night when Pepper and I were cooped up in the bedroom. But it will take awhile before I type them in my blog because I've got myself so far ahead on blogs. But here it is, another week has gone by and I'm going to have the weekend off. Writing blogs is a lot of work but it's fun too. I think I get as much out of writing them as you get out of reading them. I hope so anyway. It would sure be a lot easier if I didn't have to write them out in longhand first every time but I tried not doing that and it just didn't feel right. My biggest fear is that I'll run out of things to write about. The Subject Index I have in my Bible is a rich source of things to write about though. The main thing is that I can write on just about everything there is in the Christian walk. Every aspect of our lives deserves a blog. It'll be a while before I run out of them and by then it will be time to start all over again. Okay, this is it for today. I've got to get some things done. Until tomorrow...
No comments:
Post a Comment