Offering One-tenth of Yours to God -God Will Shower You with Heavenly Blessings
“Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so that there will be enough food in my Temple, If you do, ” says the Lord Almighty, “I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Let me prove it to you!” (Malachi 3:10)
Offering of tithes due to our Lord is an extremely important “command” that we Christians should obey. It is also one of the blessings promised by God. Unfortunately many believers, who have been Christians for many years, never choose to practice tithe It. They find countless reasons to excuse themselves. Or, their hearts simply are not stirred by this command. How they truly let down our God!
The following is a true-in-life testimony: Several decades ago, there was a merchant Mr. Tian -Lea Lee who served the Lord with fervor. His business was doing well. He has never heard of the lesson of “tithes”. One day, during an evangelical meeting, a minister explained the truth of tithe from the Chapter 3 Verse 10 of Malachi. Mr. Lee liked what he heard and was moved by it. He therefore made up his mind to give one-tenth of his business profit to the Lord from that day on. His preacher heard his decision and was also very happy for him.
The second year, he was blessed by the Lord and wanted to increase his offering to two-tenths of his business profit. He asked his preacher if he could offer two-tenths. His preacher answered “The Bible does not give a command to give two-tenths, but you can try”. During the third year, he further increase his offering to three-tenths, his business got even better. His heart was filled with joy.
Each year, he increased his offering incrementally and gave four-tenths, five-tenths etc. One day, two distant relatives came to visit him. They wanted to sell him a piece of property near a mountain side. He was always willing to help, not to mention helping his own relatives. He then signed papers and gave them the money but he never had the time to inspect the piece of land that he bought.
During the second part of the ninth year that he started his offering, two more friends came to see him and wanted to be business partner with him. He was puzzled as why his friends wanted to be partners with him. His friends then explained to him. “We found out that the piece of land that you bought has oil underground. We want to ask for your consent to let us drill. We will share with you half of the profit.” “Wow! Oil underground?” He exclaimed! He then consent to the oil drilling. From that point on, this man use all his profit from the oil drilling to do good charity work. He made contributions to churches, hospitals, orphanages and others.
This testimony demonstrated that what God says is never wrong. “You can try me and see if I will open the windows in heaven for you and pour blessings on you till there is no room for storage.”
Please see that the result of this story is sufficient to encourage us! Rise up! Brothers and sisters! Let all of us make this exchange with our God! (Excerpt from “Voice of Heavenly Men” (Issue 158).
In addition, we should abide by the words in the Bible, offer more and more, and contribute more and more. For the Bible says “Remember this – a farmer who plants only a few seeds will get a small crop. But the one who plants generously will get a generous crop. You must each make up your own mind as to how much you should give. Don’t give reluctantly or in response to pressure. For God loves the person who gives cheerfully. And God will generously provide all your need. Then you will always have everything your need and plenty of left over to share with others” (II Corinthians 9:6/8).
Let us remember the words the Lord Jesus himself said: “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”(Acts 20:35)
“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”（Ephesians 3：20/21）
From Home of Grace (1/28/2009)