Tithing

My good friend and I were discussing the importance of giving.  In the course of this discussion she told me how this lesson was impressed upon her as a teenager.  When her father became a Christian, he truly became a new creature.  Up to that time he was worldly in every sense of the word.  He made up for the lost years with his generosity and his faithfulness to Christ.

My friend said that one day her father came home and told her and her sister that there was a family in need of clothing.  He told them to go to their closet and find some clothing to give to this family.  They looked through their clothes and pulled out the oldest ones and the ones they didn’t particularly like to wear.  They brought these to their father.  He looked them over and asked, “These are old clothes you don’t wear any more, aren’t they?”  They had to admit that they were.

Her father told them to go back to their closet and get their very best clothes to give to the family in need.  She said, “We got a Bible lesson on how we should give our very best to God because we had been so blessed by Him. At the time, we were not so happy about doing that.  But, over my lifetime, I have come to better understand what my daddy was trying to teach me.” 

In 2 Corinthians 9:11, Paul tells us this: “You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.”  God gave us the very best He had in His son Jesus.  We can do no less that give Him back our first fruits and the very best we have of that with which He has so richly blessed us.