When we interpret God’s blessings as our accomplishments, we are prone to stinginess over generosity. The people of God are given the blessings of God to use for the purposes of God.
Malachi 3:6-12
6 “For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. 7 From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, ‘How shall we return?’ 8 Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions. 9 You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. 10 Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. 11 I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil, and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the Lord of hosts.12 Then all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight, says the Lord of hosts.
Description
- Since God cannot change, He is the one stable thing in this universe upon which we can rely (3:6).
- If your proximity to God seems detached, it is always because you created the distance (3:6-7).
- A tithe is giving a tenth of one’s income to continue religious work (3:8).
- A contribution is offering extra gifts at specific times or for particular causes (3:8).
- Refusing to use God’s resources for God’s agenda is robbing Him of that which He entrusted to you (3:9).
- Making meager offerings to God reveals that you have minimal trust in His ability to provide (3:10).
- Being generous with what you have shows God that you can be entrusted to steward more (3:11-12).
Application
- Our willingness to give is not hindered by what stuff we own but what stuff owns us.
- When you give to get, you aren’t trying to make an offering but trying to strike a deal.
- Your spiritual health cannot be isolated from your financial generosity.
- God doesn’t have the right to only 10% of your income, for He is responsible for 100% of it.
- The 10% commandment was intended to be a starting line rather than a giving ceiling.
- Ministry work is not funded by identical gifts but by similar generosity.
- Would you consider giving regularly and incrementally to the work of a local church?
Travis Agnew serves as the Lead Pastor of Rocky Creek Church in Greenville, SC. His most recent book is Just (About) Married.