Faith & Finance Fridays
Reflect • Commit • Equip • Apply
Malachai 3:8-10
Would Anyone Rob God?
Equip: Practicing Joy
We’ve spent two weeks already with Malachai 3:8-10, reflecting on how failure to return our first fruits to God isn’t the only way to rob Him. We also rob God by tithing begrudgingly with a closed, resentful heart. Committing to tithing joyfully is as important as the act of tithing. Last week we talked about anticipating our harvest and offering a tithe as we go. What does that look like on a practical level and how do we equip ourselves to do it?
First fruit mean just that, first—before anyone or anything else: before the government takes its cut or anything else an employer will auto-deduct, like retirement or insurance contributions. Tithing first fruits means making this the very top line of our budget. There are a number of things we can do to make tithing a natural part of our financial lives:
A giving line in our budget:More than simply making space in our budget, we can prioritize tithing by making it a top line item.
Automated giving:Whether we tithe directly to a church or to charities, there’s often a way to set up an automated direct transfer everything month so don’t even have to remember to do it.
Set windfall giving rules: Windfalls from winning prizes or receiving work bonuses are also part of our harvest. As these are often unexpected, we can’t necessarily put them in our budget or create an automatic transfer to include them in our tithe, but creating a rule for ourselves that we’ll tithe the first 10% of any windfalls will help us remember.
It's one thing to learn financial tools that can make the process of tithing smoother and easier. How though do we learn to do it joyfully?
Keep a record of what giving makes possible:Our church might provide stories about where funding goes or perhaps a charity we support shares success stories on their website. Seeing what happens with our tithe, whom it helps or what ministries receive support takes tithing from an abstract financial transaction to remind us that we’re participating in something meaningful.
Make giving a family practice:If we have children, we can involve them in our family giving planning. Not only does it help them learn early about budgeting, but it helps our commitment to God and generosity both become part of how our family understands money.
Practice gratitude with giving:If we reflect on all the blessings—financial and otherwise—that we receive from God as we anticipate our harvest and create the giving line in our budget, we might find that this chance to say thank you by giving back to Him creates its own joy.
Ask ourselves why we might hesitate: A sad truth of the world is that not everyone is honest, including people who work for churches and charities. Some of us might hesitate to tithe because we don’t trust people to actually put the money where it’s needed…acting like the priests in Malachai 3. We cannot control their actions, only our own. If they misappropriate God’s first fruits, that sin belongs to them. If we refuse to tithe, we commit the sin of robbing God, an action that wholly belongs to us. God sees us and sees that our hearts are in the right place when we offer Him our first fruits, even if those fruits don’t go to Him.
Tools like automatic transfers and budget line items make tithing easier to do. The things we practice that remind us how to find joy in tithing are what will ultimately make us as openhearted and openhanded has God is with us.
Reflection Question:
If we see money as the harvest of our own work and effort, what would it take to recognize what we've received from God through that work, and to return a portion to Him with gratitude rather than a sense of loss?
Next Week:
Next week we’ll conclude our series on Malachai 3:8-10 by examining how becoming financially fearless can help us embrace joyful tithing.