Good morning. It’s Monday, October 16, 2023. You’ll see it in the movies where the plot has a twist you didn’t expect - a direction you didn’t anticipate. Malachi has one of those. It will convert pie-in-the-sky commitments into rock-solid faith and neat platitudes into raw reality. Read on …
Today's Reading:
Malachi 3,4; Psalms 148; Acts 5
Scripture
““Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord Almighty. But you ask, “How are we to return?” Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me. “But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’ “In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse … Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.” (Malachi 3: 7-10)
Observation
At first, I didn't understand it. Malachi asked, "If we have drifted, how can we return to You?" And here's where the twist comes in: God said it starts with your wallet! It may seem out of left field, but as I reread the passage, I began to grasp it.
The people had eloquent confessions and made sincere-sounding commitments, but they remained the same year after year. In fact, they were slipping even further! So, God makes it raw and authentic: "Start by giving more, not wanting more."
Application
Often, the last bastion of my resistance becomes evident through my giving, and that begins with a tithe (or a tenth) of what He has blessed me with. God doesn't need my money, but He knows that I will never find the key to His floodgates if I don't give.
Did you know that greed is not limited to the wealthy? Greed affects everyone.
Greed can be defined as "keeping everything I get."
I have also discovered that obedience to tithing is the catalyst for God's boot camp in influence, ministry fruitfulness, and developing spiritual gifts. Jesus stated in Luke 16:11: "If you haven't been faithful in handling worldly wealth, how can God trust you with spiritual riches or the true wealth of the kingdom?"
The activation of the floodgates begins with me. Heaven's blessings are poised at "flood stage," but they will only open when I "return to God," starting with consistent giving.
Prayer
Father, thank you for always bringing me back to where the rubber meets the road. My faith must be found in the soles of my shoes, not just in the recesses of my intentions. Otherwise, my faith becomes mere rhetoric rather than reality – more talk than action. Such a faith never opens the floodgates.
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