“Bring all the tithes into the storehouse…and I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, so that he will not destroy the fruit (the profit, donations, or wages)
of your ground (from your business, ministry, or job)…says the LORD of hosts.”
Malachi 3:10, 11
In October 2012, I was experiencing a financial windfall of sorts. Without going into detail, I held on to my tithe too long. It wasn’t that I wasn’t going to tithe, but I allowed myself to think that because of the financial crisis, that maybe God was telling me to ‘hold off’. Well, I did and during that two week - yep I said two week period - that I was holding off, the crisis worsened when my laptop crashed. Mind you, I was a part-time-online-self-employed-student-having-to-continue-to-write-for-my-Real-Issues-ministry; so this couldn’t have happened at a worse time.
Because my computer crashed I thought, ‘Yeah, that’s why the Lord didn’t want to me to tithe, because He knew I’d need that money for this.’ Did you hear that foolishness? Well, I prayed and then I saw it. The reason why my computer crashed and I was struggling so much that month was because I hadn’t. No, God didn’t cause my computer to crash - the devourer had immediate access to it when I delayed tithing. The longer I held my tithe, I wouldn’t have anything working in my defense. The Lord of hosts wouldn’t be able to rebuke the devourer for my sake because at that moment, I was no longer a tither. Then I got it! Tithing is real time!
I use to think that because I’d been faithfully tithing for years that it would hold me over - but it didn’t; and the same is true for you. Perhaps you’ve experienced out-of-the-blue car repairs, household appliances mysteriously break down, computer crashes, or some other financial emergency. And whether you know it or not, every time you don’t tithe (or don’t tithe fully) is the exact moment the devourer starts to eat away and destroy the fruit (the money) you had planned for something else.
You see it’s a cycle. You get paid, you don’t tithe, something breaks down, you get it repaired which sets you behind again so the next time you get paid, you don’t tithe, some emergency happens which sets you behind again so the next time you get paid, you don’t tithe…
I’ll say it again – tithing is real time! The longer you go without doing it, the more devouring you’ll experience. Break the cycle – tithe today!
Pray this with me: Lord, please forgive me when I’ve delayed tithing. Show me how to immediately set my tithe aside before I pay anything else. And Lord, thank You for this teaching because I’m beginning to see why I need to tithe and how You’re able to work in my life as a result. In Jesus’ name.
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