Tithing, the Finale!

I know, you’re ready for this to be over, right?

So where am I in my personal struggle with the issue of tithing? Finally finding freedom, I think! If you’ve made it through all of these posts, then bless you…you’re a trooper. Whether anyone reads these or not doesn’t matter. It’s been very cathartic to me to go over again our journey to where God has brought us now.

What I’ve realized along the way is that the percentage you give just doesn’t matter…it should all be His anyway. And if one person giving 1% is just as sacrificial as someone that gives 90%, then 1% will be a blessed offering. You see, I go back to Francis Chan’s quote from Forgotten God, "I don't want my life to be explainable without the Holy Spirit. I want people to look at my life and know that I couldn't be doing this by my own power. I want to live in such a way that I am desperate for Him to come through. That if He doesn't come through, I am screwed." (emphasis mine)

For our family, right now, just about any amount we give away means the Holy Spirit will have to come through. Is it irresponsible for us to give when it will require someone else to give to us? Some could argue yes, it is. I've heard too many times that we have to 'first be responsible, then give sacrificially'. But I can’t argue with a God that has given us literally thousands of dollars in the last year to provide for our needs (and a few wants too) and has allowed us, because of these gifts, to give away thousands as well.

Does this mean we live the rest of our lives dependent on the gifts of others? I don’t know…but probably not. As long as we’re seeking God’s will moment by moment and asking Him to strongly impress upon us by the power of His Spirit every gift we should give, every purchase we should make and every direction we should go, who am I to question if this is where He wants us for now? Maybe this is our ministry. And I have to be honest, if it is…I’m thrilled. Completely and utterly dependent upon Him is a great place to be. Is it easy? No. Is it safe? No. Is it comfortable? No.

But maybe that's exactly where God wants us!? David Platt writes in Radical, "We think, If it's dangerous, God must not be in it. If it's risky, if it's unsafe, if it's costly, it must not be God's will. But what if these factors are actually the criteria by which we determine something is God's will? What if we began to look at the design of God as the most dangerous option before us? What if the center of God's will is in reality the most unsafe place for us to be?" (emphasis mine)

If you’ve not learned this already, the Bible tells us that God holds a special place in His heart for the poor, the widow, and the orphan. We are commanded over and over again in His Word to care for those that cannot care for themselves. Jesus even said that one day God will say, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ (Matthew 25:40) And we didn't even know it!

Go back and read my posts from last summer about the book of James. You can NOT read James and not be challenged to do whatever it takes to serve this amazing God that has given us so much. After all “faith, if it has no works, is dead.” (James 2:17) I want to be alive…don’t you?! Sara Groves sings, “The glory of God is man fully alive. Look what I’ve been missin’”

So what does our giving now look like in a practical sense?

**First of all, I’m going to quit calling it tithe. That word just has too much baggage for me personally. And then that big ol’ 10% won't pop up in my head and keep me from seeing the bigger picture.

**The next thing is, I’m not going to feel locked into giving to one specific organization. My hope is that we will always prayerfully contemplate where God wants us to give and obediently follow the Holy Spirit’s leading.

**And last, as often as we can, we want to give in secret. This is biblical as well. There’s something very freeing in knowing that I’m not giving just so I can get a tax break. So yeah, that means we’ll even be giving cash to our local church instead of checks.

Bottom line, it is a heart issue…and it’s a huge heart issue in our American churches. David Platt writes in his new book, Radical Together,

that “Christians in North America give, on average, 2.5% of their income to their church. Out of that 2.5%, churches in North America will give 2% of their budgeted monies to needs overseas. In other words, for every one hundred dollars a North American Christian earns, he will give five cents through the church to a world with urgent spiritual and physical needs. This does not make sense.” I would add this is just sad!

In our house, everything is now on the table, we question everything and once again, I feel like God is just getting started. The deeper I go, the more I want to know Him and experience His supernatural power that brings supernatural results that only bring Him glory.

Are you ready? If you plodded through all of these ramblings of mine, then you must be asking similar questions. So dig into His Word, ask Him for yourself and wait for His answer. Get in the game, don’t sit on the sidelines…He’s looking for players…no, I mean He’s LOOKING for players. I can promise you it will be difficult, it will hurt to let things go, it will cost you something…but it will also be the most amazing, life-energizing, blessed experience of a journey you could ever have. Not to sound cliché but “it’s the ride of a lifetime!’