Brother and Sisters,
The message of Malachi 3:7-10, the Discipline of Giving, is one of the most important messages that you can integrate into your life. Tithing is the law of God, and is giving to us for our blessing.
Malachi 3:7-10
7 “Yet from the days of your fathers you have turned away from My statutes and ordinances and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord of hosts. “But you say, ‘How shall we return?’
8 “Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you say, ‘In what way have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings [you have withheld]. 9 You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing Me, this whole nation! 10 Bring all the tithes (the tenth) 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 [so great] a blessing until there is no more room to receive it.
God told the Israelites that they were cursed with a curse because they withheld their tithes and offerings. All they had to do was to return to God with their tithes and offerings, and God would return to them.
There is a difference between the tithe and offering. Tithe is a ten percent determined by God. Offering is determined according to one's heart. In 2 Corinthians 9 we read, "Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
One can give an offering according to one's ability to give or above one's ability to give in order to plant for an harvest (2 Corinthians 8:5). You decide what you are going to give. God decides the tithe.
Tithing is proof of your devotion to God, it is a sign of your trust in God. Even as God wanted to bless the Israelites, God is looking for people who want to be conduit of his blessings throughout the world.
6 Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 7 Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. (2 Corinthians 9:6-8)
Please read Malachi 1 - 4.
May the Lord richly bless you!