Why we tithe.

Obedience will always make room for blessing, but the blessing may look quite different than we thought.

When we have surrendered our whole lives to God, it opens up the potential for His blessing to flow through us. But I’d be lying if I said that the blessing always looked or felt “blessed”.

Just because we are fully surrendered doesn’t mean problems will disappear. Paul had his persecutions and his thorn in the flesh. James was killed before the Church even got off the ground. John was banished to a long, lonely existence on a penal island.

Tithing is how God trains our hearts to be ready to give Him everything. It’s a monthly reminder that none of what we steward comes from us or belongs to us. But if I tithe and give generously, that doesn’t mean I should be sitting by my mailbox waiting for an even bigger check to arrive. It’s not that blessing isn’t wrapped up in obedience somehow (it most certainly is), but that the blessing I open myself up to isn’t always the blessing I might expect.

In other words, we give not because we think God will give it back, but because He already gave us so much more than we could ever hope or dream. We tithe not for the potential financial return, but because God asked us to do so. And obedience gives God His proper place in our lives, and it aligns us for His purposes to work through us—whatever those purposes may be.

“You are my friends if you do what I command.” (John 15:14)