His Umbrella of Blessing

I would normally tell you from experience that it's not a good idea to test God.  You won't like consequences.  God wants us to have faith in him and trust him, not test him.

With one exception.

There is one place in the Bible where God says, "Test me".

He knows all the issues we have with money - it quickly becomes our god, we always want more and we're willing to sacrifice our families to get it, we have trouble giving generously, we get in such deep debt that we think we can't give.  Just to name a few.

God says, "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house.  Test me in this 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."  Malachi 3:10.
 
I have attended a couple of different churches who sponsor a 90 day challenge for giving to God.  People tithe for 90 days - no cheating because nothing is hidden from God - and they watch God move in their finances.  If they don't see God taking care of their finances and blessing them, they get their money back.

Nobody has ever asked for their money back because God always moves.  I love it!  Test him!

And you will find out what those of us that have committed to tithing have found out - the refunds, checks for overpayment and unexpected credit to our accounts start rolling in.

 You'll have stories like this -
I had a dental claim paid by my insurance a couple of years ago and the medical assistant looked at me with surprise when she handed me back a check for $900.  She told that insurance NEVER covers this part of the procedure but they did for me.  It was Christmas time and that check helped us give a special blessing to some of the ministries we support.  Thank you, God!

The air conditioner in our home recently started making a very loud and worrying noise.  Our house is 16 years old and the air conditioner is original to the house so you know what we thought - time for a new air conditioner.  Nope!  It was fixed for the cost of a service call.  I always give God the credit for anything like this that happens to us because I know he's watching over us.

 You would hear these kinds of stories from anyone who has committed to tithe.  God is faithful and we can count on him to respond when we are generous givers. I also believe God moves in how often our cars break down and how quickly appliances stop working. If we are stingy with God, don't be surprised with high car repair bills and appliances that keep having problems.

I talked to a couple who told me something they owned broke every Monday, absolutely every Monday, for several months - until they started tithing.  Then nothing broke again for a very long time.

 Through the years, my husband and I have given two of our older cars to charity because we know God will bless us more for that than what we could sell them for.  We donated a 2 year-old refrigerator to a church mission for the same reason.  God knows.

When you and I faithfully tithe, we are putting our finances under the umbrella of God's blessing.  When we do that, he not only blesses our finances, he pours other blessings into our lives as well.  These are things that money can't buy - like joy, love and purpose.  And more.

So much more pours out that it fills us up and starts to spill over to the people around us.  The windows of heaven open up for us when we get our money in line with God.  The more we give, the more we have.  That's God's math.  We cannot out-give God.

If you don't have any of these stories, go ahead and test God!  

I know what will happen.