October 30, 2013
Malachi 3:10
(All scripture is from the New King James Version unless otherwise indicated.)
We have talked about Trusting God for our material needs, and how He promises to supply those needs. But that supply will be given to bless us, not to hurt us. In the last blog we learned about The Bank of Heaven, where God stores our riches for our eternal enjoyment. Because to give us access to all the riches Jesus promised us – a hundredfold in Mark 10:29 and 30 – it might destroy us! Such riches have destroyed others.
I think Saint Paul is a good example. You see, he confessed in Romans 7:7, “…I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, ‘You shall not covet.’ ” Paul was showing here the purpose of the Old Testament law. I suppose he could have picked any one of the Ten Commandments for this example, but he chose number ten – “You shall not covet…” Why? Because it applied to him personally. Paul had a problem with coveting! And the apostle further defined covetousness in Colossians 3:5 as idolatry! He plainly said, “…covetousness…is idolatry.” It was because of the perceived sin of idolatry that Saul of Tarsus (before he became Paul the apostle) led the persecution against the followers of Jesus. In the minds of the Jewish leaders – of whom Paul was their chief persecutor point man – Christians were worshiping a false god, Jesus the Nazarene. To worship a false god is, or course, idolatry. Coveting is desiring something so much that it takes priority in your life. And the priority of your life should be God – loving Him “…with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind…” (Luke 10:27). So then, “…covetousness…is idolatry.” Saul – because he was covetous – was guilty of the very crime for which he was persecuting Christians!
In Philippians 4:12 Paul wrote: “I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Every-where and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.” If you examine in the scriptures the apostle’s life carefully, I think you will find that he suffered need more than he abounded! Why? Because if God had bestowed abundance upon His beloved child, covetousness would have kicked in, and Paul would have reverted to his old sin of “…coveting which is idolatry.” So to make full use of Paul, God, for the most part, kept him poor!
But, oh, the riches this man of God has stored up in The Bank of Heaven! In heaven, Paul is perfect! And no sin – coveting, or anything else that afflicts God’s children down below – would corrupt the enjoyment of the Lord and His riches! So God can lavish all those stored-up riches upon His faithful children in heaven!
But there are still great promises to us here concerning our material needs. One such promise is Malachi 3:10:
“Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house,
and prove Me now in this”, says the LORD of hosts, “if I will not open for you
the windows of heaven, and pour out for you such blessing that there will not
be room enough to receive it.”
God wants to bless His children! But He will not ‘bless’ them to their destruction! If we learn to Trust God in this matter of tithing, it will show Him that we are not hanging on too tightly to material things! And God will trust us with more riches! As Jesus said in Luke 16:10 (NIV), “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much….”
It is really a careful balance here. We are not to give just to get! We are to give because God has given so much to us through His Son Jesus Christ. He gave it all on the cross to take away our sins and give us eternal life. We should simply give back our life to Him as a “Thank you” for all He has given us. As I quoted from I Corinthians 8:5 in last Friday’s blog, the Macedonian Christians “…first gave themselves to the Lord, and then to us by the will of God.” All giving should come from a heart – a life – given to the Lord Jesus Christ. Then the gift is acceptable to God! But when we give – whatever we give, even if it be cup of water – we will not lose our reward! (Mark 9:41).
So do you want to experience the outpouring of God’s blessing? Then…
“Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house,
and prove Me now in this”, says the LORD of hosts, “if I will not open for you
the windows of heaven, and pour out for you such blessing that there will not
be room enough to receive it.”