In the Bible, the idea of tithing was to give a certain amount of your income (the Old Testament usually said ten per cent) to God. In Leviticus the priests are told: ‘A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the Lord; it is holy to the Lord’ (27:30 NIV). Everything we have comes from God, and by giving something back it’s like we’re expressing gratitude and showing that we trust Him rather than our possessions and finances. God said: ‘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.’ He was saying this to people who had robbed God of His tithes and offerings (take a look at Malachi 3:8). But we can fail to sacrifice things to God too. We may hold on to our money, our possessions, our time, our gifts, or our relationships. We forget that every good thing we have is a gift from God. ‘Every good and perfect gift is from above’ (James 1:17 NIV). We hold on to things rather than use them to glorify and praise God. We worry that giving things away will mean that we go without. But God told the people to bring the whole tithe. All of it, rather than withholding some just in case they needed it. And He promised to bless them, provide for them, and look out for them. God knows all our needs. We just need enough faith to hand our whole offering (whether that’s money, time or something else) over to Him.
