*GULP*

A couple weekends ago, at church, Pastor Steve challenged us to tithe regularly. He even went so far as to have us sign a card letting the church know our intention to tithe in the next 90 days. Now, I’m not new to tithing, in fact, I believe pretty strongly in it. However, I’ve gotten out of the habit and had been thinking about it a lot lately. So when it was brought up in church in such an official way I knew it was time to make a committment. So I did.
Now, I’m not going to lie, this last week has been very financially stressful for me. I feel like money has been tighter this week than it has been in quite a while, and that’s saying something! HOWEVER, this morning I was talking to my co-worker who has a small side business and she was telling me about this weekend. She sold more high dollar funiture items in two days than she’s ever sold in that amount of time before. And while I thought that was great, I wasn’t quite getting where she was going with the story. Then she reminded me of their tax situation. Aparently their annual raises brought them just over the tax line where they owe taxes this year instead of the other way around. BUMMER! But it’s not just a little bit of taxes, it’s an amount that makes you GULP when you see it. Especially since they weren’t expecting it. So when she sold that much furniture in one weekend, the obvious message was one of God’s provision. She was so excited about it this morning that her enthusiasm was contagious.
Later this afternoon as I was sitting in the orthodontist office with my son Gabe for a “pre-braces” appointment, I was quoted an amount that made me GULP. And as I sat there silently worrying how in the world was I going to make this work out, I remembered her story.
God will provide.
The peace came and I calmed down for a bit.
But when we checked out of the office they quoted me our monthly amount that will start at the end of this month and my peace fell away. Then I went to put gas in my thirsty car and checked our account to find less there than I had expected, GULP, Peace was gone, and Worry was back. Sigh…
And thankfully that’s not the end of my story for today because God is good, and faithful and just.
When we got home I opened the mail to find a letter from Pastor Steve thanking me for my leap of faith to tithe. I had forgotten all about that today! You see, my signature on that tithing card at church is a spiritually binding contract between me and God… and the Enemy knows it! He knows that God’s word says,
“’Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me!’ You ask: ‘How do we rob You?’ ‘By not making the payments of the tenth and the contributions. You are suffering under a curse, yet you—the whole nation—are still robbing Me. Bring the full tenth into the storehouse so that there may be food in My house. Test Me in this way,’ says the Lord of Hosts. ‘See if I will not open the floodgates of heaven and pour out a blessing for you without measure.'” – Malachi 3:8-10
I have committed to tithing and a blessing IS coming.
The blessing of the Lord makes rich; and He adds no sorrow with it. Proverbs 10:22