When an alliance of kings from the north captured Lot and took him prisoner in a war with the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah where Lot lived, Abram (Abraham) and his 300 fighting men mounted a surprise attack and rescued Lot and his family and recovered all of Lot's possessions.The king of Sodom and Melchizedek, the king of Jerusalem and a priest of God, celebrated Abram's triumph.
Although Abram gave Melchizedek a tenth of everything he owned, he refused to take anything from the king of Sodom. Abram did not want the king of Sodom to take any credit for his prosperity because Abram knew it was God that blessed him.
Abram recognized God was the enabler of his victory and the provider of his prosperity. Abram recognized that his blessedness was by the power and sovereign will of God.
If you want to be totally and completely in God's will, then you can't just give Jesus your heart. You also have to give him your money!
You can't separate one from the other and Jesus made that perfectly clear: "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" (Matthew 6:21, HCSB).
Some people may not tithe because they don't really understand how God provides and meets our needs.
God does not provide for us by giving us more and more of what we already have or think we need.
If we are experiencing financial difficulties, we think that more money is the solution to our problem.
If our home is too small, we pray for a bigger one.
If our car is too old, we pray for a newer one.
If we are sick, we pray for good health.
But the biblical pattern for receiving God's provision and blessing is for Him to extend the resources we already have to meet our needs as they are offered totally and willingly to God.
Tithing is a way of doing that with our financial resources. Tithing demonstrates that we, like Abram, recognize God's sovereignty over our lives, especially our finances.
When you tithe, you offer the basic needs of your life totally and willingly to God and by having less resources you actually give God more space to enact His supernatural care over your life.
Then God extends the 90% to cover 100% of your needs!
I know it seems contrary to good sense and everything we understand about economics, but in the economy of God's Kingdom, less is really more!
By having less of our own resources, we make room for more of God's provision!
It's a faith thing!.
When you give a tenth of everything you have to God, He makes available all of everything He has to you!
"Bring the full tenth into the storehouse so that there may be food in My
house. Test Me in this way,” says the Lord of Hosts. See if I will not
open the floodgates of heaven and pour out a blessing for you without
measure" (Malachi 3:10, HCSB).
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