12.31.13

Malachi 3:10-12 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do," says the Lord of Heaven's Armies, "I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won't have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put me to the test! Your crops will be abundant, for I will guard them from insects and disease. Your grapes will not fall from the vine before they are ripe," says the Lord of Heaven's Armies. Then your nations will call you blessed, for your land will be such a delight, "says the Lord of Heaven's Armies.
My Thoughts
I love these verses. Why? It is the one way that you can see what God will do in your life! It took us a while to get here! First we gave when we would go to Church on Sunday, we gave what we had, or thought that we could give up and still have what we wanted or needed. Then we gave ten percent of our bring home pay.... then one day when we had both been thinking on this giving thing Robby said we have to give a whole ten percent of all that we earn. I said, "I know I have been thinking about that!" Amazing things began to happen in our lives. We could see it. We had to be aware, but every time we talk about giving our ten percent, we get excited! God has protected our money like you can not imagine. We spend more than we ever have, yet we have more than we ever had. Do we still have to live within our means? Of course we do, that is what God expects. Romans 13:8 tells us to "Owe no one anything." Which to me means that I must live within my means. But if I live within my means and tithe, God takes care of the rest! Since we have started tithing it is not unusual for us to need something and find a check in the mail for almost exactly that amount.

If to give I hand to hold my money and have someone take it from my hand there would have been a point where I would have held a little tight to that money, having a hard time letting it go. Now, after seeing what God does when I give, I would instead have it laying in the palms of my hands, with my hands open wide. I love it now when they take up the offering at Church... dropping that envelope in the bag feels a deposit into our future. It makes me smile to give back to God. After all I am only giving God ten percent of what God gave me to begin with. God truly does bless the 90% when we give Him, His 10%.

If you have not learned to tithe, I encourage you to start out the new year making this your habit. God promises that if we do He will bless us! God keeps all of his promises!!



2.25.12

Proverbs 10:16 The earnings of the godly enhance their lives, but evil people squander their money on sin.

My Thoughts

Too often we think of our money as something we earned...something to do with what we please because after all we earned it, it is ours.  But the truth is that our money is a gift from God, our ability to earn money is a gift from God. How we manage that money shows God how much we appreciate His gifts to us.

The better we manage what God has given us the more God will want to give  us.  This is evident in the story of the gifts of the talents in Matthew 25:14-30 ... the person that received the most talents did the most with them The person that received the least talents buried them in the ground, his were give to the person that made the biggest profit on his money. The servants that did something with their money were given more. The person who hid is money in the dirt lost all that he had. When we put our money in things... it can be the same as hiding our treasures in the dirt.

I do believe that God wants us to have things... Jesus died so that we could have our lives and have it abundantly (John 10:10). God also ask that we take care of people in need and God ask that we give 10% back to Him by giving to the Church... God ask for his 10% first and then He tells us he will take care of our 90% (Malachi 3:10).

I also have come to believe that when we use credit to live beyond what God has blessed us with that we are saying to God, "You have not given me enough."  How sad that, that must make God. When we borrow money for a house we have a house to give back if we can no longer afford it... the credit I am talking about is the things we can life without... the things that won't even be there when the bill still is.... when we make a bill on a "toy" that interferes with our ability to pay for the necessary things in life, the things we actually need we are telling God that we are not happy with what He has chosen to provide us with. I believe God first provides us with enough to cover our tithes and our needs... true needs... a roof over our heads, food, heat in winter, air in summer (for us southerners). Then God gives us a little more and watches what we do with it... when we manage it wisely God gives us more... some to do for others, and a little extra to do for ourselves..then if we manage that good we get more. He give us enough to help us and not hurt us...and for each of us that is a different amount.

Our part is to treat what we have been given as what it is, a gift. Then use that precious gift as God intended it to be used... once we learn to do that oh the changes we will see in our lives!!

1.12.12

Proverbs 3:9-10 Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the best part of everything  you produce. Then he will fill your barns with grain and your vats will overflow with good wine.

Romans 13:8a Owe nothing to anyone—except for your obligation to love one another.

My Thoughts

This year along with reading my One Year Bible through I am reading sections of The Secret Power of Speaking God's Word (Joyce Meyer) over my life, my family and the lives of my friends. There are some sections that I have marked that I am reading over my family weekly. I am loving this book!!  It divides scripture under sections.  Today I remembered a verse under the Prosperity, Finances and Giving section when I read this verse from Proverbs. Put together in my mind they got me thinking.

God's word tells us to honor God with our wealth, the best part of everything we produce.  We are told in Deuteronomy 26:2 to give the first part of what we harvest to God. Here in Romans we are told to owe nothing to anyone...except love.   When we get so lost in our wants, our desires of having we often put our selves in the position to not be able to give back to God the first part of what God has given to us. When we get ourselves so in debt, when we owe we become slaves to our debtors and often end up working so much that not only are we not able to give to God we are not around to give love to our families .. to love our friends... it is a vicious cycle! One that the devil loves to get us in.

God will give back to us more when we put Him first... if we want to make sure that we have what we need.. we must first give back to God his part of what He has given us.  When we choose not to do that we are choosing not to live under God's protection as far as our finances go!  You may feel like you don't have a choice...but at some point we all had the choice to put God at the top of our list above our bills.  One way to keep God at the top is to stay out of debt... to delay what we get by saving for it first.

The good thing is that if we have gotten ourselves in a place where we are totally unable to honor God with the first tenth of our income... God honors our efforts our earnest efforts... we can start out with what we can do...and work up to our tenth. With each bill we pay off we can add that to our giving to God... as we increase our giving...as we make the effort to get to our tenth... God will increase our provisions..in  Malachi 3:6-12 God talks about our tithes... and God even says that we can test Him and see if he protects our provisions when we give our tithes. God will take care of our money and what it will do for us... if we first acknowledge that our money comes straight from God.  When we give back to God the first part of what God has given to us.. that is us saying God I understand that all I have is from you! When God knows that we know that and we show that we know it by our actions... God will pour out his blessings on us so much that we won't have room to store it.. (Malachi 3:10).

We miss out on so much when we don't acknowledge God in all that we have... but on the other hand we are given so much when we stop and realize, and give God the credit for all he has given us. Our lives become more and more abundent when we understand that everything, every single thing we have is a gift straight from God. Our part is to show God that we we know, that we know, that we know, that what we have is all His... given as a gift to us!

12.20.11

Haggai 1:3-9 Then the Lord sent this message through the prophet Haggai: Why are you living in luxurious houses while my house lies in ruins? This is what the Lord of Heaven's Armies says: Look at what is happening to you! You have planted much but harvest little. You eat but are not satisfied. Your drink but are still thirsty. you put on clothes but cannot keep warm.  Your wages disappear as thought you were putting them in pockets filled with holes!  This is what the Lord of heavens armies says: Look at what's happening to you! Now go up into the hills, bring down timber and rebuild my house. Then I will take pleasure in it and be honored says the Lord. You hoped for a rich harvest, but they were poor and when your brought your harvest home, I blew it away. Why? Because my house lies in ruins, says the Lord of Heavens Armies, while all of you are busy building your own fine homes.

My Thoughts

Wow... oh wow! Today for the first time I saw this as a testament to how important tithing is! We often go about thinking we don't have enough money to tithe... I know we did that for so long! It just didn't seem like we had enough to tithe... God gives us all that we have!!  Then we fail to take care of our Church, God's house by giving our 10%. We fail to make sure God's house is taken care of while we fill our houses with gadgets and toys... while we buy more clothes than we truly need... while we put fill our garages so full of stuff that we can't put our cars in them... while we rent storage for our stuff.... while we have yard sells to get rid of our junk.... we do all this and think we don't have money to take care of God's house! Here God was saying your house is not prospering because you have neglected My house.  If you want your money to go far... if you want your clothes to keep you warm...if you want your food to keep you full it is simple... take care of My house then I will take care of yours!

One hundred percent of what we have is from God... all he as in return is 10% of that 100% ... then God will take care of the 90%.  When we give back to God what he ask for it is us saying ... God thank you, I understand that all I have is from you...I trust you to take care of me and all of my needs. I know that 10% is a lot!!  I know that we can look at that 10% and see that it could do so much if we used it for our needs....but here God tells us...look as long at you are not taking care of My house...and long as your are not trusting me to take care of your 90% your money, your hard work, your harvest can not be protected by me...when you trust me enough to give to My house, then I will make sure that your 90% never runs out!!

Luke 6:38 says that Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.  God is telling us here...you give me 10% and I will give it back to you... with more.

It took us forever to trust this... and what I have found... what has happened to us since we started doing this is amazing.  When we kept that 10% we often had to go to our savings to take care of the unexpected... even when we were doing out best to take good care of our money.... even after we paid everything off.... things would come up that we needed that were beyond our weekly income.. since we have learned to trust God .... and we started with less than 10%, but we started...when we did that amazing things started to happen... here we were giving what we didn't feel like we could afford to give and all the sudden our paycheck kept meeting even our unexpected needs...then we slowly were able to give more to God... slowly reaching our 10%... the closer we got to that 10% the more money we had left over after even the unexpected bills came in.... now we meet the unexpected. and we have play money...now our savings grows...it is amazing that we always have the extra when extra is needed.  That investment that we make into God's house makes our money grow in so many unexpected ways.

God is always saying to us... show your faith in me by doing this... when you do this will happen!  God told Moses to strike the rock with his staff when he did water came pouring out... but Moses had so strike the rock... He told the people to march around the walls of Jericho..when they did the walls came tumbling down. God tells us...give to my house!!... Give me 10% when you do I will take care of your 90%. Your pockets will not have holes.. your clothes will keep you warm... your food will make you full...your harvest will come in. But first I have to know that you are depending on  me.

Tithing is the only place where God tells us to test Him... Malachi 3:10 says Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do," says the LORD of Heaven's Armies, "I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won't have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put me to the test!...God says test me and I will show you that I will take care of you!!  When we give to God... God always give us more back in return!!

Does money fall through holes in your pocket? It use to fall through the holes in mine no matter what we seemed to do right... we just had to learn that the right thing was giving back to God the part He ask us for...that made all the difference!

12.5.11

1 John 5:14-15 And we are confident that he hears us, whenever we ask for anything that pleases him.  And since we know he hears us when we make our request, we also know that he will give us what we ask for.

My Thoughts

I love this!!!...Love, Love, Love this verse!!!...it is just so exciting!!... God answers our prayers when we ask for things that are good for us or good for others.  How exciting is that!!  I am reminded of verses where God says he will pour out his blessings on us....Malachi 3:10 says and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it....Grace and peace is poured into our lives by our heavenly Father. (Eph. 1:2 Message).  Poured out!!...I love that!!  God did not say I will give you a little grace and peace...he did not say I will trickle down some blessings...he said I will open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessings that you will not have enough room for it!!... God has all kinds of blessings in store for us... and we can even request what we want...if it is a request that pleases God we will get it!  Wow how lucky are we!!

3.13.11

Psalms 57:9-10 I will thank you, Lord, among all the people. I will sing your praises among the nations. For your unfailing love is as high as the heavens. Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.

My Thoughts

David was telling God I will tell everybody about your love and faithfulness...I will thank you God so the people will know that what I have comes from you!!... This is what we need to do... be very aware that what we have in our life does come from God... our abilities to work, to achieve our goals... the ability to even have a goal is a gift from God... Our health comes from God.... when we get in a car each day among hundreds of other cars and get safely from one place to another...that is God's protection... we need to keenly aware that the clothes on our back come from God that the food in our tummies come from God....the shoes on our feet come from God.  The fact that we can go home each night to a safe, warm house...surrounded by people that love us...that is a most precious gift that comes from God.  We tend to go about our days.... just going about our days...we get so caught up that we don't even notice our haves...and if we live in America we have so much!!... We need to be aware of all that God has given us and thank Him for it... daily... hourly.... constantly!!... We need to let others know that God gave us what we have.... We need to sing God's praises for all that we are.  When we do this people will begin to notice what God does for us... even if they are not aware of what God does for them..they will begin to give God credit for good in our lives, when we give God credit for the good in our lives... then they will begin to notice that God does do good things for them too.  When we thank God among the people...when we let our little part of the nation know that we love God ... lives will change around us... our lives will begin to change too.  When we use the gifts that God has given us for His good...when we thank God for what he has done.. when we share with others about how good God has been to us... the heavens will open up and God will pour out his blessings on us (Malachi 3:10)....when we thank God among the people...when we sing God praises... when heaven opens up and pours out its blessings upon us the people around us will see how wonderful God is and they will want what we have!! If you have ever wondered "How can I be a witness for God?"... You can be an wonderful witness for God by giving God praise, by giving God credit, by saying thank you to God among your small part of the world and the people around you will see...they will begin to ask why you glow and you will have your chance to be a witness for God and his wonderful, wonderful love!