"Bring the whole
tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me
now in this," says the Lord of hosts, "if I will not open for
you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it
overflows." (Malachi 3:10)
Hey Gang: Wow,
what a fabulous promise to God's children. But, to quit there is to miss
a profound second part to His promise, "Then I will rebuke
the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of the ground; nor
will your vine in the field cast its grapes," says the Lord of
hosts." (vs.11).
Do you think God is
tying our giving to His protection of us from the devourer? I will
confess that in my early years of walking with the Lord I came across this
verse and it scared the begeebies out of me because I was not a tither. I
was at best a very sporadic giver and sometimes gave what was left over.
There is also a very
key principle here, that we need to get tucked away in our minds and heart, God
challenges us to test Him. As I
read the Word I find that many of the pillars of the Christian faith were also
tested. I also believe that testing is an essential
ingredient of the faith. When God laid it on my heart that I should quit
my job, sell my house, pack my family across country into never never land, I
would suggest to you that God was testing to see if I was worthy to do what He
had in mind for me to do.
But let me take that a
step further. In that two years, when I was the ‘unemployed director of a non existent boys home’ I learned a whole
barn-full about testing. Perhaps most important was if I did not test Him
and put one foot in front of the other, I was going to learn all those lessons
that Solomon laid out for our edification about idleness and not getting up off
our backsides and taking the first step.
I had occasion
recently to have a discussion with a young man who is preparing to go into the
mission field. He was dealing with some deep seated
frustrations. He believed he was ready to take on the challenge of God's
calling but, in his opinion- like I was- he was stuck in a waiting
mode. I shared with him that all that he was doing, every jot and tittle,
was God's way to prepare him for what he will need in the future. In the
two years I was waiting for the door to open, I did a zillion different things
from moving cows to building furniture an pasturing a small church.
When God said, “Okay,
go for it!" I found myself caring for horses, building the furniture
for the house and, many other things that I had tucked away in my experience
bag. Most important was the time I spent in the Word, in those two years,
tutored by a dear lady. This, built the
foundation that would carry me in those very formative years of hanging on as
God moved so swiftly.
Sooooo, my young
warriors, read the verse for today and zero in on God's promises in these
powerful verses. Bring it all into His storehouse and test Him. It
is when you do this that He will bless your sox off. I know, because I
have been there!
Blessings,
Gramps
No comments:
Post a Comment