Malachi 3:8

“Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, ‘In what way have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings.”

In the book of Malachi, the prophet is laying down some incredible accusation against God’s people. It has been determined their tithes and offerings have been directed away from God’s house. They aren’t putting them into savings, they aren’t investing them in their future, they are using them to balance their budgets. Their tithes and offerings are being withheld and used for sorcery, adultery, liars, and people who exploit wage earners (could be creditors, like visa, Mastercard, payday loans). The accusation wasn’t against the place the tithes and offerings were going, it was against the heart of the people. The prophet is saying people who do not fear God see no problem robbing from God. Yikes!

Robbing from God is really robbing from ourselves. To have a better financial year in 2023 set up your finances the right way. Start with the tithe and offering. If you continue reading in Malachi, God issues a command. He says bring the tithe to the storehouse, which was the temple back in the day (your local church in today’s terms). When you do this, you are setting a priority in your finances. First you are saying “God, I trust you to sustain me.” Next you are saying, “God, I trust you to bless me.” Lastly you are saying, “God, I trust you to protect me.”

A tithe is the first 10% of your income to the Lord for the storehouse and an offering is anything above the tithe to the Lord for the Kingdom. Many people think they cannot afford to tithe so they don’t. However not tithing is robbing God and taking His blessing off your finances. So maybe the reality is you can’t afford NOT to tithe. Let’s not fear things more than we fear God.

The Lord tells us to test Him in this. Try it! Start off by tithing 10% (if that is too big bring an offering of a certain percent and ask God to give you faith to increase) and God will sustain you (especially in a recession). God will bless you (more than you can contain). God will protect you.