"A Heart of Obedience"

“A Heart of Obedience”

1 Samuel 15:22 (NLT)

“But Samuel replied, “What is more pleasing to the LORD: your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice? Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams” (the best you have).

Whether you believe in tithing, giving 10%, to the church for the Lord’s work, is not the issue of this Bible teaching.  I strongly believe in tithing because I have tested what the Word says about it and I’ve been blessed for it many times over.  However, I give because God has shown that’s what we need to do, so I’ve been obedient to the Word of God.  Even then that’s not the major point of giving; my heart wants to give because I love God.  It’s that simple.

Whatever you give do it with a joyful heart or it is meaningless to God.  Any way you look at it, the word ‘obedience’ is part of the word ‘heart’.  Have you ever given gifts or money to someone because you felt you had to, but in your heart you resented it?  Is there any joy in that?  You may later think about what you could have done with it if you had kept it. 

Look at this formula:   God + Heart + Obedience + Giving = Great Rewards.  Here are some of the rewards:  a joyful heart, helping others, blessings of all kinds, returns on your giving.  Almost everyone can quote this scripture in Acts 20:35, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”  The question is, “do you believe it?”  What you may not realize is that the first part of this verse is this, “Remember the words of the Lord Jesus,  that He said this.  This is what Jesus is telling believers that this is what we should do. 

The reasoning behind this is that the Lord wants the best for you!  Look at this verse that the Lord shows us what he wants for us, “Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.” [3 John 1:2] He calls us His Beloved which shows us how much he cares for us.  Then he follows with such a great blessing; prospering in all things and having good health and that our soul will prosper. How can this be?  It will happen if we are obedient to Him.

There is more assurance in Luke 6:38 where he gives us a command and the results of obedience.  Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you."   If you ae waiting for God to prosper you first and then you will start giving, you have it all backwards.  It’s kind of like what came first, the chicken or the egg?  If you believe in God, the Creator, you will understand that the chicken was created first and the egg followed.  So it is with being obedient to the Lord and begin giving from your heart.

Let me tell you my testimony.  When we first received Christ as our Savior, there was a lot we needed to learn and we were anxious to know how to serve God to the fullest.  We heard people talk about tithing and didn’t quite understand it because we had very little money at the time.  One day I received a magazine and the next day I looked through it and read an article about giving from Malachi 3:10, the last book in the Old Testament.   I didn’t think too much about it; it was time to leave for work.  I got in my car and turned on the radio as I usually did.  Instead of my Christian music, a short message came on with the scripture of Malachi 3:10 and if we need financial help, we should give first.

I really started seriously thinking about what I had read and heard.  Was this God speaking to me?  That night when I returned home and we were eating dinner, I mentioned it to my husband.  The television was on in the living room and we could see it from the dining table.  Just then someone began preaching on the television and it was about (you guessed it) Malachi 3:10.  Three times in a row was enough for me and for my family.  God was speaking to us!

The only problem was that we didn’t have any money.  We had paid our bills, but had little left for the next week.  Both cars were near empty and no groceries were bought and Sunday was two days away.  Several times we read Malachi 3:10, “Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, That there may be food in My house, And try 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 such blessing That there will not be room enough to receive it.”  We talked it over and thought maybe we could start tithing next payday, but then we read verse 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.”

We agreed that we would give the remainder of our cash, which would have amounted to 10% of our income and trust God.  We did give on Sunday and then came Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.  Both gas tanks were almost on empty, which we prayed for when we left for work on Wednesday.  The milk and bread were both gone and I wasn’t sure what we would have for dinner.  I grabbed the mail on the way in and there was a check for $200 from a realtor for an earlier house deal that we didn’t know we had coming. 

From that day to this we have never stopped tithing and God has always provided for us and blessed us in uncountable ways. 

You may still think this is about tithing, but it isn’t.  It’s a matter of a ‘Heart of Obedience’; of a loving God and wanting to please Him.  He will never fail you.  God says, “Try Me” and I say Amen!