Put me to the test

Faith can never be exercised by proxy. You must actively develop it yourself. Spiritual growth begins when we move beyond the futile attempts to grow passively and start actively engaging our faith. You can't take a correspondence course for swimming. If you want to swim you must get in the pool. Proactive faith requires "getting wet." Proactive faith requires reading the Word of God and living by what God says, period. One of the things God teaches us about is our covenant relationship with God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In this new covenant we are in because Christ died for us, we are not our own. We have been bought with a price, the blood of God the Son, who became sin for us, so that we might by God's power be made the righteousness of God. This thought makes us independent Americans rebel, but we now owe our souls and our loyalty and our eternal lives to the King of Kings, not ourselves. One of the sure ways you can tell if a person has truly learned the Word of God and learned to trust God completely and implicitly is by their attitude toward giving. God teaches us that the starting place of giving is to give our tithes to support the work of God in the Church. We read this in Malachi 3:6 "I the Lord do not change. So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.

7 Ever since the time of your forefathers you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you," says the Lord Almighty. "But you ask, 'How are we to return?'

8 "Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. "But you ask, 'How do we rob you?' "In tithes and offerings.

9 You are under a curse -- the whole nation of you -- because you are robbing me.

10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.

11 I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit," says the Lord Almighty.

12 "Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land," says the Lord Almighty.

Go active in your faith, and as an act of worship and trust, begin to give at least 10 percent of your income to God. This means that to begin with, you pay your tithes, 10 percent, to the general budget of your church. Designated offerings should come second to this, and if you can only give 10 percent, then do not designate it. Why? Because if people use designated funds to force their will upon the Church, or to play passive aggressive games with God, then the budget of the Church will come up short. In order for the work of God to continue, the budget must be met. How else can the Church do what God has called her to do? Annually, Americans spend more on dog food than on church contributions. We might want to review some priorities. Protestants now bring less than 2.5 percent of their household income to church. In the Great Depression they gave 3.3 percent. In the Korean culture, people give their gifts with both hands. They do this to communicate an important aspect of giving ... "I'm not holding anything back. I'm giving you all that I have to offer." Such a philosophy should permeate all of our giving whether it is to God or others. Ironically, children are often taught to fold their hands together when praying. With the Korean perspective in mind, this small gesture could be a constant reminder of our commitment to give God all that we have while holding nothing back. When you give to God as an act of trust and faith, God has already promised to open up the windows of Heaven and pour out a blessing you cannot contain. God says in Malachi, "Put me to the test."

Luke 6:38 Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.