But Seek First The Kingdom Of God
by Bryan W Melvin on 06/29/19
But Seek First The Kingdom Of God
by Sharon Melvin
The word of God is true and these verses in Malachi 3:10-11 seem simple enough to understand: “Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and try Me now in this, says the Lord of hosts, If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, so that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field. Says the Lord of hosts.” NKJV
Why is it then that so many Christians that tithe do not have the windows of heaven opened and a blessing poured out that they don’t have room enough to receive it and that the devourer isn’t being rebuked in their lives? In fact, the devourer is having some success in devouring them!
Jesus died on the cross and took with Him the sin of every person that has ever lived or ever will live. He gave us right standing with God because He became our righteousness by His sacrifice on the cross. When God looks at us, He sees Jesus because He is our righteousness. He also conquered death by rising from the dead with mighty power (dunamis). He won the victory over sin, death, and the works of the enemy all for us, and He restored our right standing with God by becoming our righteousness. He did it all. There is nothing else to be done. There is nothing anyone can do to add to this. Jesus said it is finished when he breathed His last. He has won the victory in every area for us. Victory has already been provided; all we need to do is walk in it. How?
The reason God made a way for us to have right standing before Him through the blood of Jesus is because He loves us, and desires to have a relationship with each one of us. Since He loves us, He would like each one of us to love Him, also. Just like if you love somebody, you would really like it if they loved you in return. If we have this love for God, obedience to Him will result. John 14:15 says: If you love Me, keep My commandments. In other words, if you love Me, you will obey Me.
In regard to tithing, (which scripture clearly instructs us to do) it isn’t the actual tithe that God is looking for. (He actually doesn’t need it.) He is looking for our obedience that comes from our love for Him. We want to give because we love Him and are so grateful. We can’t wait to do it. We just really love God and want to be obedient to Him. We are not giving in order to get. Although, there are promises of blessing, our attitude needs to reflect 2 Corinthians 9:7 which says: So, let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver. We’re not even thinking of the blessings promised to us. We’re just happy, excited, and cheerful to be obedient to God because we love Him.
Remember, there is nothing more that can be done to have favor or victory because Jesus did it all. We can’t sacrifice anything, do a good deed or even plant a seed (as some teachings teach) unless God tells us to do these things because it’s obedience that He wants.
There’s lots of biblical stories where people experienced victory in their situations because they were obedient to God. One story is with Joshua when the walls came down. It wasn’t because he marched around the city seven times and blew the trumpet. It’s because he did what God told him to do. The victory was already won. He just had to walk through it (Joshua chapter 6). Noah and the ark is another example. God provided a way to save Noah and his family. All Noah had to do was be obedient to God. It wasn’t the ark that saved Noah and his family. Noah had favor and blessing from God because of his obedience and therefore, he was saved from the flood (Genesis chapter 6).
It’s the same in seeing victory in our own lives. We just need to be obedient to God. The victory has already been won!
