Here we go! I thought, as I rolled my eyes, crossed my arms, and sat listening to the pastor one Sunday morning. He was preaching on the importance of the tithe - the Biblical principle of giving 10% of the first fruits back to the Lord. I can’t really tell you everything he said that day, because honestly, I tuned most of it out. You see, I had not been going to church for long. I had attended as a child, but fell away for some time as a young single mom. I felt I didn't fit in there and was simply muddling through both life and my church attendance. I often thought that surely everyone was staring at me with those two babies sitting in the pew and no ring on my left hand! I was only just now becoming slowly acclimated to my new church…and now this! The pastor had nerve to speak on tithing.
I was a single mom. I was a broke single mom! I had no money, few friends, and little hope. “Someone needs to go ahead and give a good offering to buy this man a new truck, so we can move on to a better topic next week!” I thought to myself. I was bitter and angry. I was deeply hurt, left from a lifetime of physical and emotional scars. I was furious that I was barely surviving as a struggling single mom, navigating daily, if not hourly, financial woes. I thought surely that was what this thing was all about – the pastor needing something new.
But as the next several weeks passed, the pastors' words from that Sunday sermon wouldn’t leave my mind. I marinated on them, many times, as the Holy Spirit ministered to my heart about full surrender. The concept of the tithe was not new to me. I was raised in church and knew the Bible spoke of giving a tenth of your increase back to the Lord, but seriously?! I was a single mom and seemingly had nothing that would make a real difference. I was making only a few hundred dollars a month to raise my two children. The tithe seemed so outlandish to a single mom who struggled to put gas in the car or feed my children. Yet, I thought on it. I prayed about it. I argued with God about it. I knew God was prompting me to give. So I did. Now, there will be some who will argue that the tithe is an Old Testament command and we, as Believers, are no longer under the law. Yep, I agree. There will be some who will say that the tithe is no longer a requirement to Believers under the new covenant. Possibly. I'm not a Bible scholar. However, I can tell you what my God did for me, as I laid out a life surrendered in complete obedience.
A few Sundays passed, and I made the decision to write my first tithe check and put it in the offering plate as it passed through. Nothing miraculous happened that day or the next or many others to follow. I just kept giving. I actually felt good about it. I knew I was living in obedience to something God had prompted on my heart to do. And most importantly, I learned that my giving was flowing from the love I had for my Heavenly Father and not because He needed my money or that I was under religious tradition or legalism. I gave cheerfully, not because of what I expected in return or what I thought I deserved, but because of all He had done to save me. My tithe was symbolic of my surrender. God, I thought, you can have it all. It's all yours, anyway.
The more I gave, the more I was blessed. I was blessed in many ways - emotionally, spiritually, and financially. Over the next several years, I moved away from government assistance, had my broken single momma heart healed through His grace, and made a decent living. All of those things, I believe, were blessings from my obedience to the tithe. Let me be careful, here. I am not suggesting that we tithe to be blessed – that God is somehow our magical genie that we rub and make demands on. I am not even suggesting that if you do tithe, God will deliver you to some financial dream of yours. I am simply saying that for whatever reason, unbeknownst to me, God chose to bless my financial obedience. There have been many years of ups and downs for me financially, since then, but one thing has remained -- my desire to tithe and give offerings to bless others.
The same is true for you, single mom. You can tithe. In fact, give God your 10% and watch him stretch the other 90%. This is not a condemnation to those who don't tithe, but rather an encouragement to those who feared that they couldn't. It is an encouragement that our God is faithful. He shows up in ways we can't even imagine or ask for. And our willingness to give cheerfully to the body of Christ is about so much more than our own pocketbooks, but about seeing those come to know that God we do and in some way, just showing him that our whole hearts trust His plans of hope for us.
