Giving to the Lord

Numbers 18:29 (NIV)

You must present as the Lord's portion the best and holiest part of everything given to you. 

No sense beating around the bush………..how much of what you bring in each month do you give to the Lord?  For most of us, this means how much money (rather than crops or other goods) do you give to the Lord, primarily to your church, each month?  What percentage of the total amount of money you earn (and let’s assume this is “take-home” pay) do you give to your church?

In Numbers 18:21-32, God speaks first to Aaron, then to Moses about the tribe of Levi (Aaron and Moses were also from the tribe of Levi) receiving tithes from the rest of the Israelites.  All priests were Levites and made a living through the offerings of others.  Levites did not serve in the Israeli military and did not own land. 

God said that He would give to the Levites all the tithes in Israel in return for the work they did as priests (Num 21:21).  So God expected His people to give a tenth of what they earned to support the work of the priests.  The Levites in turn were to give a tenth of that portion of what they received as an offering to the Lord (v 26).  Furthermore, as the verse above says, the Levite priests MUST present to the Lord the best and holiest part of everything given to them.    

The emphasis here is giving to the Lord your best offering, not the leftover, not the worthless, not the part that no one else would want.  The attitude of giving your tithe to the Lord must be that it is the first thing you give from what you bring home, not the last, not what is left over.  When you fail to do this, God knows (read Malachi 3:8-9) and He is unhappy about this.

Have you ever given 10% (or more) of your take-home pay to your church?  If so, who reading this cannot affirm that you feel tremendously blessed doing this because you know that you are being obedient and you are putting the Lord above yourself.  If you know that you never have tithed, you likely deep down have some feelings of guilt or regret; those feelings are spiritual because there is a part of your spiritual life that is being disobedient. 

To give 10% of your take-home pay to your church is a test.  God says this in Malachi 3:10.  He says “Test me…….”.  He desires for you to test Him inversely through Him testing you with what you do with all that He gives to you.  Luke 16:10 says that if you are faithful in the little things, you will also be faithful in the larger ones and the opposite is true too.  So, if you fail to tithe, if you fail to give the firstfruits of your labor, if you give what is leftover, if you cheat God out of what belongs to Him first, you are being unfaithful to Him.  Giving and tithing are a test of your true faith.  What is the quality of your faith right now?  If you know that it could be better, what better way to start than give 10% of what you bring home to your church?