For The Love Of Money Series

It was just an easy habit I had until years later --- when I had my first experience with really tight finances. Susan and I were newly married, and we literally felt like we didn’t HAVE two dimes to rub together! But, you know, we kept on TITHING anyway. And the truth of the man’s statement came alive to me.

Later on, when we were having tight finances again, I read a statement by a Chinese Christian named Watchman Nee. He said, “When you encounter hard times financially, give something away; it opens up God’s floodgates of blessing.”(my paraphrase) Well, I tried it. I received about $400 from a small life insurance policy I was cashing in. In the same mail, I received a heart-breaking letter from a Preacher in India whose wife needed life-saving surgery. I sent him a check for $400. To tell you the truth, I can’t even say how it happened. But right away my finances took such a noticeable turn for the better that there’s no way I could fail to notice it.

There’s an amazing promise in Malachi 3:10. If you’ve never heard it before, make a note of it: In Malachi 3:10 God says this: 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. Malachi 3:10

You need to realize that this is the only place in the Bible where God invites you to test Him. In other circumstances, God says “You shall not put the Lord, your God to the test…” But here in the matter of tithing, God INVITES you to test Him … He invites you to see if he doesn’t keep His promise … in a way that’s so noticeable that it will overwhelm you.

To tell you the truth, I don’t know any better way to build your faith in God than to meet the challenge of Malachi 3:10. I’ve heard testimony after testimony from those who have learned to put their Hope in God by making the Tithe the first check they write. Once you do it a few times, it becomes a habit you don’t ever WANT to break --- because the pay-off is just too good.

The HARDEST part for you, though, may be doing it the first time.

After you see God’s faithfulness in action, it will be easier to trust Him the next time, and the next and the next. As for me, I will ALWAYS choose to live on 9/10th’s of my income --- with God’s blessing --- rather than ever try to live on 10/10th‘s without the promise of God’s blessing.

The first step to avoiding the LOVE of money is to put our HOPE in God. The next step is to build up some Heavenly Treasures. It’s the only “get rich quick” scheme that is guaranteed to work:

2. Be Rich in Good Works I Timothy 6:18

Paul told Timothy to command those who are rich in this world to put their Hope in God. And then Paul added: Command them to do good, to be rich in good works, and to be generous and willing to share.

When you get right down to it, what keeps people in the Church from being generous? In many cases, they WANT to give. But their personal finances are in such a mess that they can’t pay their bills, much less share with others. I read recently that almost 70% of Americans owe so much on unsecured debt that they are paying only the minimum charge, and … at that rate … they will never get out of debt.