Giving a tenth of your income to support the Lord’s work will test you. What many people don’t realize is that “tithing” also tests the Lord! Under the nationalized economy of the Old Testament this was God’s method of supporting the religious structure through which He originally intended to govern and bless the Hebrew nation. It was a requirement and yet, as we can see by reading this chapter in the Bible, Malachi’s generation had given up the practice.

Money is like that for believers. It is a commodity of the world system, which easily lures us beyond the bounds of our faith into areas of compromise. The only way to make finances work for you is to trade it in the Kingdom of God. How do you do that? By giving…according to God’s standards. Here we see there are not only “tithes” (required giving) but also “offerings” (selective giving). God gives us both channels as financial means with which to trade our monetary instruments for a kind of unseen currency that will invite His blessings. This is not just a sermonette. God tells us plainly to test this process…and that is not something He normally allows us to do (Luke 4:12)! Look at the rewards in these verses compared to the risks in analyzing whether God is a good investment or not. In the last days, Satan is going to alter the monetary system to his advantage…but that shouldn’t matter to those who are already accustomed to cashing into to God’s system!