“Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.” (Malachi 3:10).
Malachi in these verses addressed the Jews who had returned to Jerusalem after the Babylonian exile. Even though God had fulfilled His promise to restore them to the Promised Land, they were unwilling to trust Him, unwilling to give themselves to Him due to compromise with the pagan ways and morality they had picked up in Babylon. They were disobedient and disrespectful. And so they were enduring tough times which God designed to bring them to Him. Malachi was telling them that if they only trusted in God and gave themselves fully to Him they would receive all they needed.
We, like the ancient Jews, may turn from God to trust in money and possessions and other things. We mistake these for God’s blessing and our right and privilege. We trust in them rather than Him for our well-being, meaning and security. We want to keep all we have for ourselves forgetting that it all comes from God in the first place. We are but stewards of His creation. All He asks is that we honor Him with our first fruits before anything else and He will bless us with all we need. And as we give, we will bless others by spreading the gospel of faith in Jesus Christ.
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