Right now my church is in a series called “All In.” It’s about taking all of the chips God has given us and “putting them on the table.” Taking the gifts and blessings and having enough faith in God to put everything we have — every fear, every concern, every doubt — and giving them over to our Father, watching Him honor our steps of obedience. It truly has been a wonderful series.
Just a couple of weeks ago, our pastors also introduced our annual tithe challenge. As a current tither, I’ll admit, I have found great joy in listening to the testimonies of people in our church family who have accepted the tithe challenge and are so excited to share what God is already doing in their lives, but I haven’t paid much attention past that.
Many years ago I made the decision to become a faithful tither after listening to some phenomenal teachings from my previous pastor and responding to the conviction placed in my heart. As he and my current pastor both agree, tithing is not just giving God ten percent of our paycheck. It is returning to the storehouse a small part of what already belongs to God. We are only stewards of the things of this earth, and frankly, rather than having a spirit of entitlement because we “worked hard for our money,” we should adopt a spirit of gratitude that He trusts us enough with what is His.
There is so much more to tithing that I will not get into in this post, but if you’re interesting in learning from some top notch teachers of the Word, I can certainly share some resources.
Anyway, I made the decision to tithe and I never turned back. Even during my time of unemployment, I would tithe from the little bit of money I made babysitting and eventually substitute teaching.
By no means was this without struggle. There have been plenty of days when I wrestled with God. But at the end of the day I always rested in the truth that even that little bit wasn’t mine to begin with and I tithed out of the gratefulness in my heart for all The Lord had done for me at that point, and what I was believing for in the future.
To share a small part of my own testimony, in addition to the many blessings God has bestowed upon me, in my current position I am able to give a monthly offering above and beyond my regular tithe that is the equivalent of what my tithes were for the past five years in my previous job roles.
It is not all about money, but there is no one on this Earth who can tell me God is not faithful.
However, there is one principle about tithing I have been neglecting. Tithing is about giving God our first and our best. I realized today, though I have been tithing faithfully with my money, I have not been giving God the first or the best of my time.
This afternoon, the Apprentice Team, of which I am apart under the leadership of our Children’s Ministry directors, had our monthly meeting and one of our discussion questions asked what part of the body we felt we were.
We were instructed not to come up with an actual body part, because that’s creepy, but a characteristic or description of what body part we thought we were. I couldn’t think of one for myself, but the ladies at my table with whom I serve on a regular basis agreed that I am “The Joyful One.”
It was both humbling and encouraging to hear that from these women I value so much. There are many days in my current season where I am just plain weary. Traveling regionally for my job has me on the road a great deal, and leaving the house at 6:30am or earlier many days and not getting home until after 9pm due to babysitting or after-work meetings, I find myself tired a lot and shamefully, I find myself complaining a lot.
I am well aware that this is something working parents deal with every day, but as someone who has not yet been blessed with a husband or children, sometimes I just sigh and think “Well Father, if you have me walking this single life, can I at least get some of the benefits of it, like a quiet home and no Cheerios in my shoes or snot on my shirt?”
However, when I recognize that negative spirit of complaining, I remember that God is not giving me these opportunities to hurt me, but to stretch me. Whether it’s growing me in the participation of these activities, or in teaching me to exercise appropriate boundaries, complaint is not part of the lesson The Lord is teaching me.
(I do fully believe He is giving me plenty of examples to use with my future husband when it’s time to prove why I need to be a stay-at-home mother, though!)
As mentioned before, I volunteer on a regular basis at church, and like so many others I am also a part of different discipleship groups, Life Groups and simply enjoy attending special events opened up to the congregation and community.
I share this not to brag, but to be transparent. In this time when I am spending so much time in God’s house, preparing to lead His precious flock, I have crept dangerously close to neglecting to spend time with God Himself.
It happens so easily.
The early wake up calls lead to praying in the shower. The long drives lead to listening to podcasts in the car. Preparing for group discussions leads to opening my Bible to make sure I can answer the questions that will be asked. But then what?
Reading blogs about Jesus and devotions that come to my inbox on my lunch break is not a bad thing.
In fact, none of these things are.
However, replacing the intentional act of spending time meditating on the Word with these other avenues God uses to share His message with His children is a bad thing.
And that is why I have created a different kind of tithe challenge for myself in this season: tithing the first and the best of my time.
Oh, but God.
I love how He shows us time after time that He delights in taking what doesn’t make sense to us and performing the miraculous with it.
So why can’t I…why shouldn’t I…consider this same principle with my time?
In the same way the tithe is giving God back a portion of the money He has gifted us, if He wakes me up each morning shall I not intentionally work to give Him back a portion of that time, as well?
I have been working to create margin in my life so that I can spend more time in God’s word, especially in the light of a huge life-changing call I am in the process of answering, but I have failed. And I feel like I have failed because I’ve been trying to do it all myself.
So I am going to move forward with this challenge, and just start by giving God back what is His and letting Him create the margin in my life.
Just a couple of weeks ago, our pastors also introduced our annual tithe challenge. As a current tither, I’ll admit, I have found great joy in listening to the testimonies of people in our church family who have accepted the tithe challenge and are so excited to share what God is already doing in their lives, but I haven’t paid much attention past that.
Many years ago I made the decision to become a faithful tither after listening to some phenomenal teachings from my previous pastor and responding to the conviction placed in my heart. As he and my current pastor both agree, tithing is not just giving God ten percent of our paycheck. It is returning to the storehouse a small part of what already belongs to God. We are only stewards of the things of this earth, and frankly, rather than having a spirit of entitlement because we “worked hard for our money,” we should adopt a spirit of gratitude that He trusts us enough with what is His.
There is so much more to tithing that I will not get into in this post, but if you’re interesting in learning from some top notch teachers of the Word, I can certainly share some resources.
Anyway, I made the decision to tithe and I never turned back. Even during my time of unemployment, I would tithe from the little bit of money I made babysitting and eventually substitute teaching.
By no means was this without struggle. There have been plenty of days when I wrestled with God. But at the end of the day I always rested in the truth that even that little bit wasn’t mine to begin with and I tithed out of the gratefulness in my heart for all The Lord had done for me at that point, and what I was believing for in the future.
To share a small part of my own testimony, in addition to the many blessings God has bestowed upon me, in my current position I am able to give a monthly offering above and beyond my regular tithe that is the equivalent of what my tithes were for the past five years in my previous job roles.
It is not all about money, but there is no one on this Earth who can tell me God is not faithful.
However, there is one principle about tithing I have been neglecting. Tithing is about giving God our first and our best. I realized today, though I have been tithing faithfully with my money, I have not been giving God the first or the best of my time.
This afternoon, the Apprentice Team, of which I am apart under the leadership of our Children’s Ministry directors, had our monthly meeting and one of our discussion questions asked what part of the body we felt we were.
“The human body has many parts,
but the many parts make up one whole body.
So it is with the body of Christ…
…Yes, the body has many different parts,
not just one part...
And if the ear says, ‘I am not part of the body because I am not an eye,’
would that make it any less a part of the body?
If the whole body were an eye,
how would you hear?
Or if your whole body were an ear,
how would you smell anything?"
1 Corinthians 12:12, 14, 16-17 (NLT)
We were instructed not to come up with an actual body part, because that’s creepy, but a characteristic or description of what body part we thought we were. I couldn’t think of one for myself, but the ladies at my table with whom I serve on a regular basis agreed that I am “The Joyful One.”
It was both humbling and encouraging to hear that from these women I value so much. There are many days in my current season where I am just plain weary. Traveling regionally for my job has me on the road a great deal, and leaving the house at 6:30am or earlier many days and not getting home until after 9pm due to babysitting or after-work meetings, I find myself tired a lot and shamefully, I find myself complaining a lot.
I am well aware that this is something working parents deal with every day, but as someone who has not yet been blessed with a husband or children, sometimes I just sigh and think “Well Father, if you have me walking this single life, can I at least get some of the benefits of it, like a quiet home and no Cheerios in my shoes or snot on my shirt?”
However, when I recognize that negative spirit of complaining, I remember that God is not giving me these opportunities to hurt me, but to stretch me. Whether it’s growing me in the participation of these activities, or in teaching me to exercise appropriate boundaries, complaint is not part of the lesson The Lord is teaching me.
(I do fully believe He is giving me plenty of examples to use with my future husband when it’s time to prove why I need to be a stay-at-home mother, though!)
As mentioned before, I volunteer on a regular basis at church, and like so many others I am also a part of different discipleship groups, Life Groups and simply enjoy attending special events opened up to the congregation and community.
I share this not to brag, but to be transparent. In this time when I am spending so much time in God’s house, preparing to lead His precious flock, I have crept dangerously close to neglecting to spend time with God Himself.
It happens so easily.
The early wake up calls lead to praying in the shower. The long drives lead to listening to podcasts in the car. Preparing for group discussions leads to opening my Bible to make sure I can answer the questions that will be asked. But then what?
Reading blogs about Jesus and devotions that come to my inbox on my lunch break is not a bad thing.
In fact, none of these things are.
However, replacing the intentional act of spending time meditating on the Word with these other avenues God uses to share His message with His children is a bad thing.
And that is why I have created a different kind of tithe challenge for myself in this season: tithing the first and the best of my time.
Often when we begin tithing, it is a financial sacrifice. The main reason we hear from people who do not tithe is that every time they crunch the numbers, they can’t see how they will possibly have enough money to tithe. Their budgets are already stretched to the maximum, and by earthly standards, it does not make sense to tithe.
That's how I feel about my schedule right now. No margin.
Oh, but God.
I love how He shows us time after time that He delights in taking what doesn’t make sense to us and performing the miraculous with it.
So why can’t I…why shouldn’t I…consider this same principle with my time?
In the same way the tithe is giving God back a portion of the money He has gifted us, if He wakes me up each morning shall I not intentionally work to give Him back a portion of that time, as well?
I have been working to create margin in my life so that I can spend more time in God’s word, especially in the light of a huge life-changing call I am in the process of answering, but I have failed. And I feel like I have failed because I’ve been trying to do it all myself.
So I am going to move forward with this challenge, and just start by giving God back what is His and letting Him create the margin in my life.
I'm going to give God back the first and best of my time. It will be a sacrifice, no doubt. I can't imagine waking up earlier than my current 5:30am call, but the sacrifice will make the experience that much more precious.
"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom,
teaching and admonishing one another
in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
Colossians 3:16 (NKJV)
