The Tithe Belongs To God

God asks us to return the tithe to Him because He wants great things for us.

Ten percent doesn’t seem like much. Offer me a 10% discount as enticement to eat at your restaurant or shop at your store, and I’ll probably just shrug. But when it comes to parting with our hard-earned money, many Christians see 10 percent as an insurmountable obstacle. That’s too bad, because they’re missing out on a lot of blessing. The tithe belongs to God, but giving it will change your heart and bless your life.

God has a plan for your money, and it begins with with providing for your family. And though we all have ways in which we can improve as workers, planners and budget-makers, the priority of providing comes fairly naturally to us. It’s instinctual and innate; even animals in the wild know to provide for themselves and their young.

The second step in God’s plan, though, can be much more difficult than the first. God earmarks some of your money as belonging to Him, and He has specific ideas about what you should do with it. Specifically, He wants you to tithe.

What is the Tithe?

The tithe belongs to God… but what is a tithe, anyway? You won’t hear the word outside of church very often. But it’s a simple idea. The tithe is 10 percent of our income that is set apart for God.

The principle of the tithe can be found all throughout scripture. We first encounter this idea in the Law of Moses, when God commands the people of Israel to give a tenth of their income to Him. Leviticus 27:30 makes it fairly clear:

A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the LORD; it is holy to the LORD.

The tithe belongs to God — He considers it as His own. Remember, God owns everything and He gives us everything that we have. Out of all He gives us, He asks us to return 10 percent to Him. Why? Because the things we do with our money change our hearts. We become attached to the things we spend money on. God doesn’t need your money, but He wants your heart. So He asks you to return the tithe to Him because He wants your heart to become attached to His.

Unfortunately, many churchgoers today struggle with the idea of tithing. Some receive blessing and ministry from the church but give nothing in return. Others give sparingly or infrequently. God intends for tithes to be the primary way that churches are funded. But sadly, many churches struggle financially  because their members don’t tithe.

The Tithe Belongs to God, and It Is Important!

How important is tithing? God speaks about it with important words in the text. It says that the tithe “belongs to the LORD,” and that it is “holy unto the LORD.” Another way to say this would be that the tithe is consecrated. Though money may seem earthly and mundane to us, God sets a portion of our income aside as having a special, spiritual significance.

Think about the other things that are consecrated. God says that our lives are consecrated, set aside for Him, bought with the blood of His son. We consecrate other parts of our lives, setting aside daily devotional time to spend with God in the Bible and in prayer, as well as weekly time that we set aside to spend with His people, the Church.

So why should our money be any different? It shouldn’t be. If our lives should set apart to Christ, that includes our money. If we hold our finances back from God, we’re rebelling against what He wants in our lives. That’s not just a bad habit or a philosophical difference — it’s a heart problem.

It’s also tragic. Because God doesn’t just use the tithe to fund the work of the church or to draw your heart closer to Him. He uses the tithe to bless your life. People who don’t tithe are really shortchanging themselves. By resisting what God asks from them, they miss out on much of what God has for them.

Finding God’s Plan for Your Money

Returning the tithe is an important part of aligning your life with God’s word. But the idea of tithing can be stressful for some people because it requires organization and planning in their financial lives.

If the idea of managing your money well enough to tithe is overwhelming to you, fear not. I have created a free video series called “Stress-Free Finance” that will give you simple, easy-to-follow steps to organize your financial life and build a blessed future. Here’s a preview. You can join the free program by filling out the form right below the video.

Join me today, and let’s discover the great thing God has in store for your life!