DAY 20: Robbing God

Reading: Malachi 3:8-10
‘Will anyone rob God? Yet you are robbing me!’ v8

 “Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me.

 “But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’

 “In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.

 This always sounds harsh. Are we really robbing God? Should we
really be putting God to the test? Yet that is what Malachi says. If we
know what God has called us to give and, in an ungenerous spirit, we
seek to keep it to ourselves then we are robbing God. The practice
of giving a tenth to God, which would also benefit others, was long
established in the Old Testament.
Some commentators say that if we seek to withhold from God what is
his, then it will disappear anyway. Look at Haggai 1, where the money
didn’t stretch far enough because the people of God had put their own
pleasures first and the work of God second. So God challenges His
people who say that they only have a small amount of money, or that
they couldn’t possible give anything more. He says, ‘Put me to the
test, be open-handed and generous and see what I do.’
So God calls us to give regularly, proportionally and with a generosity
of spirit based on all that He has done for us.

 For Further Reading: Malachi 1:6-14 - Further examples of robbing God.
To Ponder: What would you do if you thought you were withholding your
regular giving from God?
To Pray: Lord Jesus, there are times when I fail to acknowledge you
joyfully with my whole offering. Please forgive me and help
me to seek that generosity of spirit that is the hallmark of your
people. Amen.
x

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