Obedience in Giving

by Jason Arnold

In a recent Church Council report, I promised that “you will not miss the money, but you will miss the blessing,” as I was discussing tithing (giving ten percent of our earnings to the church). The person who asked me this question is a deeply committed church member with a deep love for Scripture. This person is a leader of leaders and a strong believer. I believe this person could speak extensively on the tithe, and why Scripture tells us to give ten percent of our earnings to the church. He was not questioning the giving part of my statement, he was questioning my promise that we will receive a blessing because we give. Our discussion ended with me telling an analogy that I want to share with you here. Before that, I want to clarify that the blessing we receive when we give is not always an answer to prayer or more funds, or a promotion or anything tangible. My analogy helped to clarify what I mean when I promise a blessing from God when we tithe. So here’s the analogy:

When I was a kid, my Mom and Dad allowed my older brother and me to spend summer days at home alone. I was probably about eight, and my brother was about ten when this began. Every day before my parents left for work, we would discuss the day’s chores. Sometimes the chores were simple and quickly completed, sometimes they took hours. We were not allowed to leave the house until we were older, so you would think that out of sheer boredom we would have eventually gotten around to completing the chores de jour. As you can probably guess, there were many days we didn’t get the chores done before Mom or Dad got home (I mostly blame my brother…that’s what younger siblings do).

The instructions for the chores were always clear. The supplies needed to complete the chores were available and easily accessible. We had the skillset and knowledge necessary to complete the chores…but they went undone.

What happens when we replace “chores” with “tithes” in these statements?

The instructions for tithing were always clear. The supplies (funds) needed to complete the tithes were available and easily accessible. We had the skillset and knowledge necessary to complete the tithe…but they (tithes) were not given.

So where is that blessing I promise? It’s in obedience to do what was asked of us. When I did the chores I was asked to do, I had pride in hearing my parents say “thank you” and “good job,” which is the same blessing we can hear from God when we are obedient to Him. Is there a better blessing from God than feeling Him say “thank you for your obedience” and “well done”?

So I will say it again, you will not miss the money, but you will miss the blessing! Bring the tithe to the church and feel the blessing of being obedient!

Author Bio
Jason is husband to Kim and father to Nolan and their yellow lab, Daisy. He gets his kicks watching baseball, talking about and working on cars, fishing and reading business articles and books. He was called to ministry out of the "real world" of finance in 2007. Since then he's completed a masters and doctorate degrees and hopes to never write another paper again. He has served as Executive Pastor of Inside-the-Walls Ministry since 2013.