Tithing is a concept that has created great controversy inside and outside the church. Some people feel like tithing is a slick way for pastors and ministers to get rich. Others feel like tithing is a problem because they don’t know what their church is doing with the money.
However, both arguments are false. Tithing has nothing to do with your pastor or your church… tithing is between you and God. Tithing is a way for us to show God that we believe and trust in him.
So should you pay Tithe when faced with a desperate financial situation? Is there a level of poverty so low that sacrifice should not be expected or a family so destitute that paying tithing should cease to be required?
The Lord often teaches using extreme circumstances to illustrate a principle. The story of the widow of Zarephath is an example of extreme poverty used to teach the doctrine that mercy cannot rob sacrifice any more than it can rob justice.
In fact, the truer measure of sacrifice isn’t so much what one gives to sacrifice as what one sacrifices to give (see Mark 12:43).
Faith isn’t tested so much when the cupboard is full as when it is bare. In these defining moments, the crisis doesn’t create one’s character, it reveals it. The crisis is the test.
If one does not pay tithing because of destitute circumstances, one tends to stand alone. But if one obeys the commandments of the Lord in spite of difficulty and hardship, the Lord becomes an active partner in the person’s affairs.
We are not talking about abstract concepts here, but about the real, difficult world. Here is what one could do in circumstances such as yours.
First, pay your tithing! Make the tithing the very first payment you make from your monthly bills, and be sure that it is a complete, honest tithing.
Tithing and giving has nothing to do with anyone but you and God. Just like Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of the most-high God… we must pay our tithes to the King of kings and Priest forever; the Lord Jesus Christ.
I challenge you to give God your tithes and offerings in faith. If you do, he will bless you beyond measure. Please try it out and write us and let us know how the Lord Jesus Christ blessed you!
By Evangelist Samuel Balaggadde. Getty Images.
