“Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. But you ask, ‘How do we rob you?’ In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse—the whole nation of you—because you are robbing me. 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 will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit,” says the LORD Almighty. (Malachi 3:8–11, NIV 1984).
My Musings – Two sides of the same coin? “Rob God” on one side, “bring the whole tithe into the storehouse” on the other. “Under a curse,” or “so much blessing.” Whichever side you look at, there is absolutely no reason to hold back from giving to God. As for me, I don’t care so much about the material blessings, but I surely don’t want to be in the position of robbing God.
My Advice – You may be thinking, we barely have enough to get by from week-to-week. We don’t have anything to hold back, so how could we possibly be robbing God? Do you trust God enough to bring Him your “first fruits?” Setting aside your tithe, before anything else? Take Him at His word, and “test [Him] in this.” See barely enough to get by, turn into more than sufficient for your needs. Soon there will be offerings above-and-beyond the tithe.
I witnessed this first-hand with my mom and dad. Barely enough to get by was a very good description of their early years. Until, at the urging of a fellow-believer, they “tested” God. That’s tested spelled t-r-u-s-t-e-d. True to His Word, barely enough become more than sufficient. Doctor bills and repair bills decreased, more than proportionately to what they set aside in tithe.
They never got rich by the world’s standards, yet there was “so much blessing” in things that really mattered. And they never again forgot to give to God first. We watched our dad, every week after cashing his check. The first thing he did when he got home was put his tithe (and yes, offering) into a coffee cup in the cupboard for Sunday morning. A vivid lesson my brothers and I never forgot.
You see, whenever you rob God, you are really robbing yourself.
The Brew Is A Musing 