The blessing that has come from tithing is a little hard for me to put into words, because it was a total fulfillment of Phil. 2:13: "...for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure." It never ceases to amaze me that when God wants me to do something, first He'll plant the desire in me, then He will bring it to pass. So weird! Makes me feel a little lazy. Justin and I used to tithe. But I was not exactly a hilarious giver... I was a crabby giver. It was a contract that I had with God, and the fine-print read something like this: "The Payer will submit payment on the first day of every new week, and the Receiver will prevent anything bad from happening to the Payer." Hence, my non-hilariousness. Bad stuff happened. Clearly, God was not holding up His end of our contract, and if He was not going to provide for my wants, (which I always considered needs), then I had no choice but to rend the contract and release myself from further financial obligation to this God who would not be obligated to me because of my weekly installments. That was years ago...

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After thinking about the 90 day challenge, John & I decided to go through our finances & make sure we were on track with our tithe & see how we could "push" it a little.  We decided to increase our weekly offering & see how it goes.  That same week I received a letter in the mail informing me of a merit raise that would be effective on my next paycheck.  This just made us smile because God ALWAYS provides.  We have found, even with John out of work, that we have everything we need.  You simply CANNOT out-give God.