This is something I’ve been wanting to blog about or while!
If there is one thing in my Spiritual life that I’d like to experience, besides hearing the voice of God revealing my purpose, is to experience the blessing that come with faithfully tithing everyweek my 10% back to God.
(verse stolen from Laurannes e-mail)
Malachi 3:10
Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.
I’ve experienced this blessing once with finally recieving a job at Subway in Sunnybank Plaza but I’ve never experienced the floodgates for just the sake of the floodgates (as in a job requires work still lol). I quickly learnt from the past that tithing with the mentality of “Ok so I need $200 next week to buy some clothes, so the Bible tells me that God will return back 10x so this week i’ll tithe $20″ isn’t the way it works. I struggled with my tithe because I held on to money so tightly. But over the years I’ve come to realise that even if i get no return I owe it to God because not only does he own everything, he is gracious enough to let me steward his belongings.
So for the past year I put aside any selfish attitude of tithing to tithing because I want to give back to God. It wasn’t easy but as I gave back to the house of God I felt my grip on money loosening and tithing went from being semi-sad to a joy. I honestly forgot about these so called ‘floodgates’ but here comes the good stuff!
Couple of months ago I sat down and had a look at my budget for the year and realised I had a fair few large expenses, two of the biggest being the recent Oceania Convention in Melbourne and also an end of year trip to Malaysia to attend the leadership conference in KL which I will also be travelling to Singapore for a week. Despite knowing my financial situation I wanted to go to experience God. I also wanted to stop grubbing of my parents and pay for my own trips and to my surprise my budget actually allowed for it but meant being extremely tight with my cash. But despite these expenses I wanted to be faithful with my tithe and offering and readied myself emotionally and physically for the year.
I celebrated my 21st and had a rather large party (thanks parentals!) and to be completely honest had already planned into my budget the amount of birthday money I would get to help pay for my trips. The party happened and during the party I was blessed by the Ablazians with enough cash to pay for my pretty much my whole OC trip! I was absolutely floored when i opened the envelope and was so thankful to God for his provision through my friends.
I counted the rest of birthday money and after recounting it several times I was absolutely floored once again! I had not only received enough cash to pay for my OC trip, in total i had recieved enough cash to also pay for pretty much 90% of my trip to Malaysia and Singapore!
I sat in my room in awe of what just happened… I recounted again and again and again and couldn’t believe at how much money i had been blessed with. After realising I sat before God and just couldn’t stop thanking Him, God reminded me in that moment that when we tithe faithfully he truly does open the floodgates and provides for our needs! I can honestly say that God has pretty much fully paid for my trips!
So I am so stoked to be going back over to Singapore to see some good mates and had a great time over in Melbourne!
Remember tithing is not about instant gratification, its about trusting God and knowing that he teaches us to be faithful and patient. Do not doubt in the promise of God to open the floodgates of heaven when we bring him our tithe!
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