The pastor stands before the congregation in the midst of the service and says, “I need every Christian in this house, if you love the Lord, to give me $100.00!” You’re sitting there with your grocery money in your pocket and think that if you don’t give, it may show others that you don’t really love God, so you give. Then Monday comes and you are without grocery and the last $100 that you had. You call the church and they say, we will have to take it before the deacon board and get back with you, while you are your family go hungry. Baby, if God wanted you to give your last few dollars to the pastor he would have told you himself and you would not be without. See, God won’t ever put you in a position of being without if you are doing what HE ask. Don’t be foolish! If you’ve already paid your tithes, you have done what God has asked.
We have gotten away from studying God’s word for ourselves. We think that if Passa said it, it must be true. But little do you know that same Passa can be leading you straight to Hell and you haven’t even realized it. You don’t see if until you get to church one Sunday and his position is vacated. 2 Timothy 2:15 states, “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”
Malachi 3:10 states “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.” Bring the whole tithe, the 10% of your earnings to God’s house and watch him show out in your house. He doesn’t say bring me all that you have, but just a small portion so that my house can be fed. We fall into the greediness of the world and the Pastors who stand before you Sunday after Sunday begging, “God said for each of you to give me $20”. Stop it! God hasn’t said any mess like that! We want to feel honored when the Pastor of 15,000 members know our name because we are one of the biggest giver. But let sickness attack you or a family member and see who shows up at the hospital. Let death knock at your door and see who stands to do the eulogy. You get the same privileges as any other paying member. Just because you are giving your all to the church doesn’t mean they will give their all to you. If you are doing what God has asked you to do by paying your tithes every Sunday, every other Sunday or once per month, you should be able to see Pastor’s face when you’re on your bed of affliction or going through. You shouldn’t have to be a gold member to get counseling or even a word of prayer over your life.
Leviticus 26:3-5 states, “If you follow my decrees and are careful to obey my commands, I will send you rain in its season, and the ground will yield its crops and the trees of the field their fruit. Your threshing will continue until grape harvest and the grape harvest will continue until planting, and you will eat all the food you want and live in safety in your land.” In other words, if you do what I ask and keep my commandments, you shall not be without because God has promised that your land will bear food for you to eat and safety in your place. The land in which he speaks doesn’t just mean land where fruit is planted; it means the land where you are planted because you yield the fruit. It is like I said before; when you become a Christian you are rooted in God. In order to yield fruit worthy to be eaten you have to supply it with the nutrients and water that it needs to grow. This means, you need to study God’s word and feed it into your soul so that the fruit that is yielded from you are worthy of him. Psalm 67:6 states, “Then the land will yield its harvest, and God, our God, will bless us.”
You have to choose to tithe. We all know that it is in God’s word because Proverbs 3:9 states, “Honor the LORD with your wealth and with the first and best part of all your income.” God doesn’t have to use the Pastor to tell you what you need to pay because it’s already there in his word. Your tithes should be taken out first before anything else is done. If you remove it from the bank or your check registry first then you’ll know what is left to work with. Once you get into a habit of paying your tithes, you won’t even notice it and it will become second nature. If you choose to give over your tithes, then do so. But do it with a cheerful heart and not because of what someone will think or because you feel obligated too. Trust me; God won’t punish you because you didn’t throw $50 on the altar when asked at church. Now, the devil may come along with a few of his tricks to make you think that but God doesn’t work that way, he is not a messy God.
Stop allowing folk to talk you out of doing what is right. “Girl, you know that money is going to the Passa cause look at the car he driving.” “Man, why you paying money to that church when it ain’t nothing but a rip off, they ain’t nothing but a business!” Or you talk yourself out of it by saying, “God knows my heart!” or “I want to give but I needed these shoes I saw last week.” A church has to run as a business in order to get business done. They have bills to pay just like any household. Why does the Pastor have to be using tithing money to pay his car note when he gets a salary just like any other employee? However, if the Pastor or member of any church is doing wrong by the church and its money, it is up to God to handle that not us. We are too busy trying to do God’s job that we miss out on our own blessings. You’re so busy worried about what the church is doing with the money that you aren’t following what God has asked you to do.
If you’re going to pay tithes, do so but without complaining. If you are not going to pay tithes, don’t but without complaining. I don’t need to hear why you are or are not paying tithes because it’s between you and God. I won’t be standing next to you on judgment day. I can’t answer for you and you can’t answer for me. You do you and I’ll do me!
2 Corinthians 9:7 , “Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”
Lakisha, the Author 