Obedience (A Re-Post from my Multiply Blog)

Caution: the following blog may contain some disturbing material. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK....or better yet, stop right here! (Blogger not responsible for anxiety attacks.)

Yesterday at church, our pastor talked about tithing. (Tithing is offering back to God - through a parish, church or community - 10% of one's income.) This is not the first time I've heard a Catholic priest talk about tithing during mass, but he said something that really struck me. He said, "tithing is not about money, it is about obedience - obedience to God".

I have learned about tithing 19 years ago through teachings from the Catholic Covenanted community I previously dwelled in. I have tithed and given love offerings since then. From all the monetary blessings I have received: salary, Christmas bonus, monetary gifts, tax refund....I even tithed on money I happened to find while I was walking on a side road! 

Honestly, it was a struggle at first. It was so tempting to hold onto the money that I thought I could use for something else. Something I needed, not just wanted. But the grace of God brought me to a point where tithing became "automatic" on me. And looking back, all those amount I have given back to the Lord, had returned to me so many times over, in so many ways.

Fr. Jack even added, "are you obedient to God about tithing, or do you think that you are better than Him? Thinking that you are able to take care of your own worries?" Malachi 3:8-10 talks about tithing so clearly:  

"Should people cheat God? Yet you have cheated me! But you ask, What do you mean? When did we ever cheat you? You have cheated me of the tithes and offerings due to me. You are under a curse, for your whole nation is cheating me. Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do, says the Lord Almighty, I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won't have enough room to take it in! Try it! Let me prove it to you! (Life Application Study Bible version)  

God has been very faithful to me with the above promise. God has provided for me and my family ALWAYS. Even at the time when my husband (then still my fiance) resigned from his job while we were preparing for our wedding (what a timing, huh?!). How easy it was to justify to keep my salary intact and pass on tithing to pay for the wedding,(just for this time, Lord!) yet, I chose to tithe regardless. And what a blessing it was to realize on our wedding night, that we had received monetary gifts in the EXACT amount we had spent for the wedding itself! As if God told us, "I've got you two covered." He literally paid for our wedding :)

And about eight years ago, when my husband stopped working so he could study full time, my salary became the only source of our family income. Yet one time, my husband told me, "Bestfriend, galing talaga ni Lord. Ikaw lang ang nagwo-work, pero we have enough. When the two of us were working, we also had enough (looking back, I don't recall us ever talk---or worry---about not having money, or not having enough to pay utilities, etc.). And so I told him, "syempre, kasi the Lord is faithful to us." 

So when Fr. Jack's Sunday homily started going into the topic of tithing, I thought, "Oh, I know this one." But when he said that tithing is not about issues on money but about obedience to God, I was awed. Suddenly, I was reminded of Leviticus 26:3-13 that talks about The Reward of Obedience...  

"If you live in accordance with my precepts and are careful to observe my commandments, I will give you rain in due season...you will have food in abundance....I will establish peace in (your) land...I will look with favor upon you...I...will not disdain you." (New American Bible version, paraphrased). 

Yup, there are countless blessings that accompany obedience. And when it is about obedience to God about tithing? Whoa! I better watch out. For the reward is surely out of this world! (pun intended, he,he!)

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