God is so good. Every time I obey Him He blesses me more abundantly. I tell you this story, not to boast or be prideful, but to show you what a great and awesome God we serve.
Until last summer Mr. Steady and I never tithed regularly. Last summer, at a time when my world had been shattered and my marriage was hanging by a thread and we were, very literally, living on the charity of others, I decided we would start tithing. One dime of every dollar that came into my hands went back to our home church. My husband had no job and I made about $700 a month.
One day on the way to church I clenched our last $50 in my fist. We hadn't paid our rent, we were behind on most of our utilities, and our gas tank was toeing the red E. I had a choice. We could place that last $50 in the offering plate and give God back a small portion of what was rightfully His. Or we could fill the gas tank up and be able to take my family where they needed to go. I decided to give God His portion. After church I found out we had been blessed by a loving Christian family with double the amount that we gave God. Double. Keep that story in your back pocket....
This Christmas a loving Christian sister gave me a gift of $50 with instructions to spend it on myself. Recently God reminded me that I had a debt of $50 to pay someone I had borrowed money from a long time ago. That debt tugged at my heart and I reasoned with my conscience for a while. "It was a gift to me, I should use it for what it was meant for." But God kept nudging me to do the right thing. So I sent it to my lender post haste before I could change my mind again. The very next night a dear, dear couple knocked on my door and handed me $60.
Now you tell me, do you think that $100 or $60 would have been given to us if we had not been obedient? Over and over again I have heard sermons preached on tithing and over and over again I have read Malachi 3:10 and know this is the only area God allows us to test Him. We don't tithe or pay our debts to reap blessings, we do it because it's right and we want to honor Him. But I can attest to you that by honoring Him, He will bless you.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
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Jenni. You continue to bless my heart. God is tugging at me in some areas, too! Why is "yes, Lord!" so hard to say?
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for this Jenni. It's so uplifting to hear stories like this. God Bless,
ReplyDeleteJill
For the longest time my husband and I never gave regularly because I reasoned we couldn't afford it. However, about three months ago I sat down with our checkbook and list of bills and made a budget. I discovered that we could in fact afford to give our 10% and still have plenty left over! I don't know how this worked because we didn't start making any more money and we didn't have any less bills, the money just went further. I can't explain it.
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