Today’s Reading: Malachi 3:6-12 (English Standard Version)
6 For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.7 From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, How shall we return?8 Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, How have we robbed you? In your tithes and contributions.9 You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you.10 Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.11 I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil, and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the Lord of hosts.12 Then all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight, says the Lord of hosts.
Takeaways:
- This passage is an exhortation about faithful giving.
- God does not change.
- Why are we so comfortable robbing God when the pressure is on to meet other financial obligations?
- The Lord implores us to test him on this. That is huge!
- God is always faithful. The way you give proves whether you believe it or not.
- Our pastor said a few weeks ago that “your generosity is a good barometer of the level of your faith.”
