The Tithing Effect
Trusting in the Lord and having faith that he will come through for me is something that I've struggled with for many years. In small areas of my life he has asked me to put my trust in him. One of the things that I really struggle with is money and finances. If my bank account says I have $200 then I want to spend $250. I have difficulty saving money. I'm just one of those people.
Sometimes I feel like Daniel and I are just spinning our wheels. I know that we have been trying to deal with our debt and finances on our own for many years and about a year and a half ago we decided to ask God what we should do.
At the beginning of this year I really felt led to start tithing. I just felt it in my spirit that we needing to start trusting God with our finances. I knew I was going to need some prompting so I googled "tithing videos". I came across a few videos and began to watch them. They all spoke about how scary it was to begin trusting God with their finances but once they did God provided for their needs. One couple made the statement that it is the only thing that God says to "test him" in.
It was the beginning of the year and we had not received a paycheck in January yet. I get paid once a month and we already had a budget planned out. We also already had plans for the week as our anniversary was coming up and we had planned a shopping day. Of course our budget is a tight one! So, to tithe 10% right off the top was extremely scary!!!! When I saw how much we had to tithe it was a HUGE deal!
We prayed about it and decided to go for it based on one verse in the Bible: Malachi 3:10 "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."
My prayer journal entry on 1/12/18: I praise you, thank you and trust you with our tithe. Lord, I don't know if I'm asking too much in this?! Please keep our feet from slipping. I ask that you provide enough money for us to pay our debts this month, without us having to pull from our savings.
We paid our tithe. Scary? You bet!!
If you didn't already know this God is in the small details of your life as well as the major milestones. On our anniversary trip, our daughter paid for our lunch unexpectedly, we found super great sales, and we had money waiting for us at home that my Mom and Dad sent in an Anniversary Card.
For the 1st testing of our tithe we brought in extra money from all kinds of different sources that were unexpected. The amount of money exceeded the amount of tithe by $21.00.
Daniel's 1st check of the month came in and we tithed our 10% and prayed again that God would bless it and provide for us. God brought us an extra $26.00 on top of giving us back the tithe.
Some of the ways God blessed us was very unexpected. For example, our house insurance was less this year so we received a rebate check in the mail. He also blessed us with extra work to make more money. For example, I had a lot more orders for door hangers and was able to teach extra aerobic classes at the gym.
Let's fast forward a few months. We are still tithing 10% of all income received which includes anything extra God has provided for us. Each month we have been able to pay our bills and miraculously pay off some of our debt at the same time. We have not had to pull from our savings account at all. God is good! We have so, so much! But, of course I want more. Let me tell you about an instance of us wanting more.
Our youngest daughter was getting ready to graduate from High School. She has been wanting to go see Phantom of the Opera in NYC for quite some time. My husband and I discussed this and decided there was no way we could give her this gift for graduation. We are trying to get out of debt so how could we go? We'd have to go into further debt to do this for her. We decided we couldn't go. She was very disappointed. I'm a Mom! I wanted to take her so bad and I felt like where there is a will, there is a way. I prayed about it. I talked to Daniel about it. I searched the internet to try to find a cheap way to go. I'm stubborn by the way! We prayed about it and made a decision to go ahead and buy Phantom Tickets. I had a way to pay for the tickets but that was it. I told Daniel if we buy these tickets it is NYC or bust! We would just stash money away over the next 8 weeks and hope we had enough to not build up debt in the process.
The bill for the tickets came in and we were able to pay it off immediately without occurring any interest charges. We still continued to pay our full tithe and continued to pay our bills without dipping into savings. Our daughter had no idea we were planning on giving this gift to her. She graduated in May and we planned a party for her at our house that evening. I made a video of her from baby on up and about every 5 slides I put a slide in that said, "Remember when..." and it would say things like "Remember when you collected barbie dolls? Remember when you used to sing to Disney Sing a long songs? Remember when you used to watch Hannah Montana? Remember when you graduated from BHS? and then the last two slides said Remember when you got Phantom of the Opera tickets for a graduation gift? Remember when you went to NYC for your 17th birthday?"
We stashed any extra money we could into an envelope. Before we left we pulled enough out to leave behind to pay for the hotel and the rental car (we figured out it was cheaper to rent a vehicle from Enterprise Rental and drive than it was to fly on the cheapest airline we could find). We took the rest of it with us with one credit card that we would use for the hotel, car rental and any other things we may have needed.
We left home on Monday with the cash we had collected and one credit card. We drove two days to get to NYC and we stayed in a hotel on Jersey side with an awesome view of NYC. We ate at a pizza pub almost every night for $13.00 and it was delicious. We visited the Central Park Zoo and the Museum of Modern Art, saw Oceans 8 in the movie theater, went to Carlos' Bakery and Applebee's, spent four nights in New Jersey with the best view of the city and got to see Phantom of the Opera on Broadway in NYC for our daughters 17th birthday.
I received the credit card bill today that is not due until next month. It only had our hotel stay in Jersey, hotel stay on the way to Jersey and gas we used on the way on it. The billing cycle ended in the middle of our trip so the vehicle rental, which was a minimal amount, was not on there yet. I deposited the cash we left behind and was able to pay it off immediately.
As soon as I paid off that card it hit me hard! It hit me how God has blessed us so much over the past five months. Not just financially but in other ways too. God not only provided for us to pay our bills each month without pulling from our savings but he has went above and beyond by allowing us to pay off some things on top of getting to take our daughter to NYC for a graduation/birthday gift without having to go into debt to do it! Praise the Lord!
Now, did God just hand it all over? No, he provided opportunities for us to bring in extra money by having to work for it. He also provided in other ways too.
Is it easy for me to tithe now? No! But it does show me that God is in the details and that he loves me and he wants to be my Dad. He wants me to ask him for things and he wants to bless me but he also wants me to trust him and trust that he knows best like most dads do!
I don't know in what area God has asked you to trust him in but I can tell you that he stands by his word. It is scary to trust him but I can tell you from our experiences over the past five months that it has been worth every penny!
Sometimes I feel like Daniel and I are just spinning our wheels. I know that we have been trying to deal with our debt and finances on our own for many years and about a year and a half ago we decided to ask God what we should do.
At the beginning of this year I really felt led to start tithing. I just felt it in my spirit that we needing to start trusting God with our finances. I knew I was going to need some prompting so I googled "tithing videos". I came across a few videos and began to watch them. They all spoke about how scary it was to begin trusting God with their finances but once they did God provided for their needs. One couple made the statement that it is the only thing that God says to "test him" in.
It was the beginning of the year and we had not received a paycheck in January yet. I get paid once a month and we already had a budget planned out. We also already had plans for the week as our anniversary was coming up and we had planned a shopping day. Of course our budget is a tight one! So, to tithe 10% right off the top was extremely scary!!!! When I saw how much we had to tithe it was a HUGE deal!
We prayed about it and decided to go for it based on one verse in the Bible: Malachi 3:10 "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."
My prayer journal entry on 1/12/18: I praise you, thank you and trust you with our tithe. Lord, I don't know if I'm asking too much in this?! Please keep our feet from slipping. I ask that you provide enough money for us to pay our debts this month, without us having to pull from our savings.
We paid our tithe. Scary? You bet!!
If you didn't already know this God is in the small details of your life as well as the major milestones. On our anniversary trip, our daughter paid for our lunch unexpectedly, we found super great sales, and we had money waiting for us at home that my Mom and Dad sent in an Anniversary Card.
For the 1st testing of our tithe we brought in extra money from all kinds of different sources that were unexpected. The amount of money exceeded the amount of tithe by $21.00.
Daniel's 1st check of the month came in and we tithed our 10% and prayed again that God would bless it and provide for us. God brought us an extra $26.00 on top of giving us back the tithe.
Some of the ways God blessed us was very unexpected. For example, our house insurance was less this year so we received a rebate check in the mail. He also blessed us with extra work to make more money. For example, I had a lot more orders for door hangers and was able to teach extra aerobic classes at the gym.
Let's fast forward a few months. We are still tithing 10% of all income received which includes anything extra God has provided for us. Each month we have been able to pay our bills and miraculously pay off some of our debt at the same time. We have not had to pull from our savings account at all. God is good! We have so, so much! But, of course I want more. Let me tell you about an instance of us wanting more.
Our youngest daughter was getting ready to graduate from High School. She has been wanting to go see Phantom of the Opera in NYC for quite some time. My husband and I discussed this and decided there was no way we could give her this gift for graduation. We are trying to get out of debt so how could we go? We'd have to go into further debt to do this for her. We decided we couldn't go. She was very disappointed. I'm a Mom! I wanted to take her so bad and I felt like where there is a will, there is a way. I prayed about it. I talked to Daniel about it. I searched the internet to try to find a cheap way to go. I'm stubborn by the way! We prayed about it and made a decision to go ahead and buy Phantom Tickets. I had a way to pay for the tickets but that was it. I told Daniel if we buy these tickets it is NYC or bust! We would just stash money away over the next 8 weeks and hope we had enough to not build up debt in the process.
The bill for the tickets came in and we were able to pay it off immediately without occurring any interest charges. We still continued to pay our full tithe and continued to pay our bills without dipping into savings. Our daughter had no idea we were planning on giving this gift to her. She graduated in May and we planned a party for her at our house that evening. I made a video of her from baby on up and about every 5 slides I put a slide in that said, "Remember when..." and it would say things like "Remember when you collected barbie dolls? Remember when you used to sing to Disney Sing a long songs? Remember when you used to watch Hannah Montana? Remember when you graduated from BHS? and then the last two slides said Remember when you got Phantom of the Opera tickets for a graduation gift? Remember when you went to NYC for your 17th birthday?"
We stashed any extra money we could into an envelope. Before we left we pulled enough out to leave behind to pay for the hotel and the rental car (we figured out it was cheaper to rent a vehicle from Enterprise Rental and drive than it was to fly on the cheapest airline we could find). We took the rest of it with us with one credit card that we would use for the hotel, car rental and any other things we may have needed.
We left home on Monday with the cash we had collected and one credit card. We drove two days to get to NYC and we stayed in a hotel on Jersey side with an awesome view of NYC. We ate at a pizza pub almost every night for $13.00 and it was delicious. We visited the Central Park Zoo and the Museum of Modern Art, saw Oceans 8 in the movie theater, went to Carlos' Bakery and Applebee's, spent four nights in New Jersey with the best view of the city and got to see Phantom of the Opera on Broadway in NYC for our daughters 17th birthday.
I received the credit card bill today that is not due until next month. It only had our hotel stay in Jersey, hotel stay on the way to Jersey and gas we used on the way on it. The billing cycle ended in the middle of our trip so the vehicle rental, which was a minimal amount, was not on there yet. I deposited the cash we left behind and was able to pay it off immediately.
As soon as I paid off that card it hit me hard! It hit me how God has blessed us so much over the past five months. Not just financially but in other ways too. God not only provided for us to pay our bills each month without pulling from our savings but he has went above and beyond by allowing us to pay off some things on top of getting to take our daughter to NYC for a graduation/birthday gift without having to go into debt to do it! Praise the Lord!
Now, did God just hand it all over? No, he provided opportunities for us to bring in extra money by having to work for it. He also provided in other ways too.
Is it easy for me to tithe now? No! But it does show me that God is in the details and that he loves me and he wants to be my Dad. He wants me to ask him for things and he wants to bless me but he also wants me to trust him and trust that he knows best like most dads do!
I don't know in what area God has asked you to trust him in but I can tell you that he stands by his word. It is scary to trust him but I can tell you from our experiences over the past five months that it has been worth every penny!
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