What is the Tithe, you might ask, is it just me writing a check to my church for 10% of what I make each week? No, it is much more and much more meaningful when you understand it with your heart!
With it being the Christmas Season, I was reminded of when I was a little girl and wanted to give my Momma a Christmas gift, from me, that she could unwrap. Being only a child, of course, I had no money to go buy her something so I would go to my room and search to find something I thought she would like. After going through my baby dolls and stuff animals, I would always end up going through my little box of "valuables", which consisted of my little necklaces and Avon perfumes my Momma had given me. I would take one of the little perfumes and wrap it up, the one with the most left in it, and put it under the tree with her name on it. I was always so excited when it came time to open presents and she would find mine to her. Of course after the first year of me doing this, she always knew what she would be unwrapping. She always acted so excited over my gift anyway and it made me feel so big inside!
One Sunday morning during our teaching on the Tithe & Offerings out of Malachi 3:6-12 the word "return" jumped out at me! God was telling His people to return to Him, and they asked..."In what way shall we return?" The next verse talks about man robbing from God in tithes & offerings and they needed to return to Him that which was already His. He showed me that the tithe is just like what I did each Christmas for my Momma, I was only returning to her what she had already given to me. He said...."The tithe is My gift to you, that you return to Me, just like you did as a child." That thought brought tears to my eyes, the tithe is God's gift to us so we have something to "return" to Him!!
I hope this blessed you and if you are having a hard time tithing, that you will see it in a new light. To me it is even more precious now that I know it is His gift to me and I GET to return it to Him!
Until next time...God bless & keep you!!
Your Sister in Christ - Kathy
