Daily Reading: Proverbs 3
Scripture Focus: Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine. (Proverbs 3.9-10)
Devotional Thought: I have a dear friend who loves God and tithes faithfully. Yet, she often experiences financial difficulties. How do I explain these verses to her, whose barns are not filled with plenty and whose vats are not bursting with wine? I simply point her to the blessings of God in small ways and remind her how God has enriched her soul with plenty. I also can tell her that circumstances also determine what and how God will bless. Let me illustrate.
There is another place in the Bible that we can go to and read a Promise concerning tithing:
Bring the full tithe into the storehouse... [Test me and see if] I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil. (Malachi 3.10-11)
In these verses, we see that there are practical factors to what God can bless. He said he would rebuke the devourer, so that their fruit would not be destroyed. That assumes that fields were being planted and worked! It further assumes that they were producing due to proper conditions. A dry season will have an impact on the crops of a God-worshiper, too. But, God will still bless. God will still make a way.
Whether Principle or Promise, a good life habit is to be a faithful tither. A good steward, pleasing to God, must have not only the willingness to give, but must actually give! They must “honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all [their] produce; then [their] barns will be filled with plenty.”
Prayer: Lord, I thank you for the principle of generosity. Your generosity toward me enables me to be generous to you in giving tithes and offerings. My generosity opens the floodgates of heaven for further blessings from your hand. Amen.
Psalm of the Day: Psalm 2.7-12
7 I will tell of the decree: The LORD said to me, "You are my Son; today I have begotten you.
8 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.
9 You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel."
10 Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth.
11 Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling.
12 Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.
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