Why I Tithe

Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. 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. I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil, and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the Lord of hosts. Then all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight, says the Lord of hosts.
Malachi 3:8-12. I woke up this morning thinking of tithing. For that reason I will blog about why I tithe.  I believe I have been blessed my whole life because of tithing. I remember my mother telling me how even when I was in my young teens, I would always find a way to make money. if it was mowing  lawns, or shoveling snow, delivering newspapers, what ever I could find to do, I would do it. I was taught in Sunday School as a young child to tithe and for most of my life I practiced tithing religiously. Sometimes I felt my attitude wasn't right but I would tithe anyway. I believe this scripture written above and as much as I wanted God's blessing, I didn't want his curse. I have a relative that teaches Tithing is not scriptural the way we do it today. In biblical times they would tithe of cattle and crops that they raised. If they traveled to pay tithe they would convert it to money and then buy the animals or grain offerings at the end of their journey. While this is true, it would not be practical in our day. There is a new Testament reference to tithing and it says to not leave it undone as you do other things. A tithe is 1/10 of our income. That is what tithe means. I went through some years where I was discouraged with the church and quit going, but I drove a Pastor crazy because he didn't understand why this young man would pay his tithes faithfully and not attend church. I believed that scripture above and even though I was hurt and would not attend church, I did not want that curse upon me. I have not been 100% faithful my whole life in tithing. This scripture promises if we try God in this area he will bless us. The following scripture says he will rebuke the devourer for our sakes. I heard a story of a farmer that had tithed his whole life and there were locust coming his way. they were like a cloud in the sky, you could see them coming and they were eating everything in sight. The farmer stood at the edge of his property where he saw the locust coming. He prayed, God you promised in your word that you would rebuke the devourer so that I would not destroy the fruit of our soil. He watched as the locust came up to the fence line and went around his property. God promises to bless us and open the windows of heaven if we will trust him and tithe. The scripture tells us to bring it to the storehouse which would be his church. I recommend wherever you are feed spiritually. I do not recommend TV preachers. I believe God has bless me throughout my life because of this one practice. I quit one time and felt self sufficient and got laid off. But I also say God protect my job. Once in 2000 / 2001 when the airline industry was suffering I was one person away from being laid off. I was a level two engineering employee, and a retention 1 in that level. My supervisor came to me and said I am going to put you in for a level three. I thought I was going out the door. I felt safe at the higher retention level but I knew when I got a higher level three I would be at the bottom retention wise. By the end of that month all level two's were gone. He actually saved my job. I was blessed over and over again. I believe much of my blessing was God blessing me because of tithing. That is how I believe and that is why I tithe. I feel God has been faithful to me.  God bless, LVZ.