Bring It!

“Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, That there may be food in My house, and try 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.” MALACHI 3:10

A storehouse is where we store up goods and we eat from it. Simply put, our spiritual storehouse is our church from which we are spiritually fed—not too hard to understand!  Isn’t it interesting that God does not command them to give a tithe? Many people misunderstand this scripture. God doesn’t command them to give their tithe here. No—He says, “bring all the tithes.”

The reason He commands us to bring our tithe (the first 10% of our income) rather than give it, is because we cannot give what doesn’t belong to us. There is a big difference between returning something and giving something to someone. The tithe belongs to God, and we simply bring it back to the storehouse. The tithe isn’t meant to be given away because it’s not ours to give; it’s ours to bring to the storehouse.

This is a concept I have lived since I had my first job as a teenager at Domino's Pizza back in 1999. I took God at His Word. For every paycheck I earned, I brought my tithe to Him in my local church, and I can confidently say that God has proven His Word to me. He actually says, “Try Me now in this!”

But I get it. It’s scary to tithe when you never have before. Even if you recognize God promises to bless your socks off in this verse, even if you know He said, “try me,” it’s a big step to take. This is where you choose to trust Him. Don’t overthink it. It won’t make sense in your mind that by taking the first 10% off the top of your paycheck and bringing it back to God, He will somehow make the rest of your money stretch far enough to cover your bills, and more. But He does! Believe me, when God says, “try me,” you need to try Him. I can guarantee you from personal experience, He won’t leave you hanging!

Father, we surrender our hearts to You. We surrender in full trust because you are a God who keeps Your promises, and we know You will never leave us hanging when we put You first in our finances. In Jesus’ name, amen.