PT-2 "They were Robbing God" (Mal. 3:7-8)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/30/2016 1:34 PM

My Worship Time                                                             Focus: PT-2 “They were Robbing God”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Malachi 3:7-8

            Message of the verses:  “7 "From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from My statutes and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you," says the LORD of hosts. "But you say, ’How shall we return?’ 8 “Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you say, ’How have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings.”

            We have been talking about tithing and I have to say that one of the things that I have been responsible for at our church along with some others is to be a prayer counselor for a program which is entitled “Greater Things” as we are trusting the Lord to change lives in our church as we all come together to give money to the Lord in order to pay off the debt of our church building, to raise money for the work of a translation project for people in Chad Africa, and to also do some needed repairs to our physically.  With this said I can understand how the giving of tithes and offerings is an act of worship to the Lord.  God owns everything and as believers we are stewards of what He owns, as He puts us in charge of what He wants us to be stewards over including the money we make.  As believers the least that we should give is a tithe for that is what people had to do under the Law and we are not under Law but under grace.  God will hold us accountable to the things that we are stewards over as seen in some of the parables of our Lord.

            Dr. Wiersbe writes “Over the centuries, many of the Jews committed two errors with regard to the tithe: 1) the legalists obeyed the Law so scrupulously that, like the Pharisees, they even tithed the minute garden herbs (Matt. 23:23-24), all the while thinking that their obedience would earn them righteousness before God; 2) the irreligious neglected the tithe and by disobeying God deprived the temple ministry of what it needed to keep going.  When Nehemiah returned to Jerusalem, the temple storerooms were empty of produce and many of the priests and Levites had abandoned their service to go back home and work their fields in order to care for their families (Neh. 13:10).  The people had vowed to bring their tithes (10:24-29), but they hadn’t kept their vow.”

            As mentioned God owns everything and needs nothing and it should be a privilege for believers to give to the Lord, not something we should do grudgingly, but be cheerful givers, thankful for the opportunity that God gives us to be a part of what He is doing on earth.

11/30/2016 1:54 PM