I think it’s safe to come out of the closet and announce … I’m not convinced about the argument that tithing is a command for the New Testament church.
(What do you mean, there’s something that is meant by coming out of the closet? I thought everyone did it announce their disassociation with tithing as a New Testament church prerequisite, they don’t?)
I grew up in a church that insisted on it. This was a part of my regular Christian life up until 2010. By about 2008, however, I read and experienced enough to make me question the church doctrine on the subject. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not against tithing. I’m not even against church encouraging members to tithe. If that’s your conviction or persuasion I’m not going to argue against you. To me it’s hardly a disagreement worth any friction on.
My problem is that my reading of New Testament living – New Covenant giving if you will – is that it’s not about setting minimum limits on giving, or suggesting that Jesus ordains it. The Spirit of God in me should motivate me to be a generous giver – not just of money or income, but of my life. 10% is God’s? No 100% is God’s.
In any case, this isn’t an entry about tithing, though there is a reason why I mention it.
The golden text used to support tithing, almost used like a Come On Down The Price Is Right incentive to tithe, is the reference to Malachi prophetically criticising God’s people of withholding their tithe. In it there’s a suggestion that in doing so they rob God. (Malachi 3:8-12)
That concept came up to me when I was hearing someone talking about prayer. As I heard about the depth and riches of the prayer life, it occurred to me that I was cheating God by having a rather lax approach to prayer life.
Now this is an indictment on me, because prayer was one of my favourite things about life in Christ. There was a phase in my life – not all that long ago – when I came across scriptures on prayer and learnt more about the subject and was surprised by how wide and encompassing the issue can be and how it can be practiced in ways that I had never considered.
So from that phase of being buzzed up on prayer, to this lax attitude to prayer I realised there was a problem. That problem was exacerbated when I looked at the other things in my life that I certainly wasn’t lax on. Compared to prayer, these things were trifling, yet they occupied my thoughts and energy and time, where prayer was a passing thing I took for granted.
That’s how I felt I was cheating God.
Added to that is the episode where in attempt to trap Jesus the clever bods asked him about the tax problem (Matthew 22:15-22) Jesus brilliantly replied by getting a coin and pointing out that it belongs to the dude who has his mug on it, but likewise we should give to God what belongs to God.
In my humble opinion my entire being belongs to God, so it’s not unreasonable to give God my everything. That doesn’t mean I cannot enjoy those ‘trifling’ pursuits, as long as I enjoy them for His glory and not to the detriment of highly important aspects of giving myself to Him, like my prayer life.
On other occasions this realisation might have lead to tears and much emotional outburst – and that has its place – but the real deal of knowing God is that He doesn’t expose me for debilitating effect. He does so to put me back on the path of righteousness. To fill my vision again with the glory I miss out on when I don’t give to Him what belongs to Him. And what belongs to him isn’t a tenth of my time, or my money – He has given all for me, it’s only fair that I give all for Him.
No pressure!
Now when I initially wrote this, I was going to leave it there, as I usually would. Yet on this occasion, it seemed right to also talk about what I was going to do about it.
Renewing a passion for prayer is a desire of the heart and motivates action. So the thing I learnt about prayer was the importance of having it as part of a structured approach to your day. It’s not about being overly ritualistic and dogmatic about it, or it loses the essence of joy that’s meant to be there. Yet even as God is a God of order, so it makes sense to order your life around prayer.
So the renewal of the passion for prayer lead to reinstalling those set times in set places for prayer.
It also meant getting in touch with people who I know pray for me and get to know them more as well as pray with them for me and then branch to even pray for them! Yeah, amazing isn’t it? The world does not revolve around me, but my brother and sister may have issues that I can remember in prayer.
Another act that helped in the renewal of the prayer passion was writing prayers and having prayer points. Those things would be great triggers for prayer and would pop up all over the day at the most unusual times – and believe me there were answers to prayer.
What helps considerably is a watchful wife who loves to pray. She has a passing interest in my affairs as well, so being held accountable to her for the renewed passion in prayer was also a pivotal step in all this.
These are just some of the practical steps taken in the light of God’s gracious reminder that life wasn’t about the trifling things, but about the things that matter – like prayer.
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
dmcd
Life With CD 