Rewards of Giving; Day213

Mal 3:10  Bring all the tithes (the whole tenth of your income) into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and prove Me now by it, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. [Mal. 2:2.]

I’ve always asked this questions to friends “What is the purpose of money?”  “Why do you have all the blessings in life?” Most of the time, the answers are not in line to what the Bible is trying to convey. Pause for a moment for now and think and then write down your answers in a piece of paper. 

Most people in the church (those that are non-compliance) will always get offended when they hear this scripture mentioned before the offering part of the service.  Why do I have to give 10% of my income to the church?  I am struggling here in my day to day financial needs and I will set aside 10% of my income to the church.  I’d rather give this money to my daughter or brother/sister that needed the most.  I am not going to argue any opinion in this subject but I want to share my view and how I interpret it and what I am doing with it.

God is not a beggar. God is rich.  God’s people are rich. God’s believers are blessed.  The Kingdom of God has plenty of resources. The church has enough to sustain itself.  Malachi 3:10 is a “Principle”.  It is a mindset.  In my own version, “if you want to prosper financially, give it away.”  How so?  Imagine you have a cup in your hand and you are trying to fill it up with water from me who has the control of the faucet.  When your cup is full, I will turn off the faucet because your cup will just be wasting the water down the drain.  Once your cup is empty, I’ll open the faucet again to fill you up.  So true with the blessings from heaven.  When we start to hold back on our finances for self preservation (not for the benefit of the Kingdom), the blessings will cease.  But when we continue to give (not just monetary$$/material) to the Kingdom, our blessings will overflow.

So my answer to the question “What is the purpose of money? The answer is “giving”. To help other people.  So when someone hand me a sum of money, I know right away that I can’t keep it, I have to give it away.  My definition of “giving away” is not defined yet (more on that later).  There are so many versions of “get rich quick” strategy out there.  You can try all of those but there is nothing that can compare to what this principle can do to your finances.  I am not going to elaborate about my finances here, but I have enough to buy groceries every week to feed my 2 children and my wife.  Through the years, I’ve learned that by following the guiding principle of giving, all my needs (plus extra) were met.  What I meant by giving is not just the money part.  There are other things that you can do ie. giving your time to a friend who needs comfort.  Listening to a friend who has no one to hear his/her cry.  Extending your help to any stranger that needed help. Mentoring a friend or co-worker so that he/she too can shine in his/her own career.

In short, always have a mindset of giving. Ask yourself every day this question. “What can I give today?”  At your workplace, ask yourself “What can I give to my employer today?” To your friends, “What can I share?” To your spouse, “How can I make him/her happy?’”.

MIT (Most Important Task)
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0000, Sleep
0100, Sleep
0200, Sleep
0300, Sleep
0400, Sleep
0500, Breakfast; journal;
0600, Leave for work
0700, At work
0800, At work
0900, At work
1000, At work
1100, At work
1200, At work
1300, At work
1400, At work
1500, At work
1600, At work
1700, At work
1800,
1900,
2000, Dinner
2100,
2200,
2300, Sleep
2400, Sleep