“Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you say, ‘How have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing Me, the whole nation of you! Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this,” says the Lord of hosts, “if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows. Then I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of the ground; nor will your vine in the field cast its grapes,” says the Lord of hosts. “All the nations will call you blessed, for you shall be a delightful land,” says the Lord of hosts.“
The Lord directed me to this passage this morning, and as I was pondering on it something really struck me -- that if the people of God were faithfully giving the tithe - 10% of our income - to His ministries - to their home church or the ministries that they look to for spiritual guidance and support, the Church would be equipped to do the work of the Church -- to feed the hungry and to clothe the widows and orphans -- and we would not be outsourcing that to the state who is not equipped to do it. The government will always have a bent toward control. It’s the Church who is charged with displaying the heart of God in our communities. I have never thought of this passage in this context - but because we are not supporting our local churches and ministries in the way the Lord directs - taxes are devouring all we have to support causes that in no way represent our values or the heart of God. So let me make a charge this morning, sit with the Lord about your finances. Ask Him to help you devise a plan to start giving 10% or more back to the ministries that reflect His heart. The scripture says that if we do that, He will rebuke the devourer for us and He will make sure that our work is productive, is blessed and is not in vain.
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