Tithing Testimony: by Sarah Burnett

   Hey guys! Sorry you haven't heard from me in a while. All of my writing energies have been invested in writing a book that I hope to finish and publish next spring. I hate that this takes my attention away from the blog, but luckily I have an array of friends with wonderful minds and a passion for writing. 

   Two of these friends are David and Sarah Burnett, who have guest-written some of our Study of Character posts. Recently Sarah asked if I would be interested in sharing a piece she wrote on the subject of tithing. Tithing is a subject I did not have much interest in, until the beginning of this summer. Since a resolute transformation, I am very passionate about this subject, and was glad to accept her offer. 

   So without further around-the-bush-beating... 
I hope you'll enjoy this testimony written by Sarah Burnet: 

   My pastor is about to give a sermon on tithing, which is honestly a message way past due for our congregation. I guess I should be glad that I can even say that, because contemporary culture, at large, is tired of hearing pleas from the pulpit to open our wallets.

   If we’re being honest, though, tithing is a really fundamental spiritual discipline. Maybe that’s why it got out of hand so easily—With so many sheep ready to be sheered, of course we’d get false teachers to fleece the flocks. But in light of the backlash, a lot of faithful church leaders have backed off from talking about tithing. As a result, I think there are many true believers who really don’t give it enough thought anymore.

   When I learned that my pastor was finally going to speak on tithing, I knew I wanted to help. He

invited me, along with a few others, to share briefly with the congregation why we personally tithe—I call it my “tithe testimony.” As I wrote it out, I knew I wanted to share it with more people than would be in the room that day, so anyone interested can find the rest here.

***

“You will seek me and find me

when you seek me with all your heart.”

Jeremiah 29:13

   I don’t know when I first encountered this verse, but I know it was one of the first to put me on

a track towards Christianity. Someone much smarter than me once taught me that anyone can pretend to understand an idea and poke holes in it all day long. That is easy, and it doesn’t count for much. But if you really want to understand an idea, and have real authority to accept or reject it, you have to actually give it your all to defend it first. That’s the only way to give any idea a truly fair shake, and only then can you really know what an idea is worth.

   That lesson, and this verse, is why I decided to prayerfully read the entire Bible, cover to cover, one time through in college. At that point, I honestly thought Christianity was a bunch of wishful and old-fashioned nonsense, but I took seriously the challenge to give it a fair shake before fully and finally rejecting it, so I did. I spoke often to the God I didn’t believe in, and I asked Him to reveal Himself to me in his Word. You can probably guess, as I stand here today, that God did not fail to show up for me.

“For the Word of God is alive and active.

Sharper than any double-edged sword,

it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit,

joints and marrow; it judges the thought

and attitudes of the heart.”

Hebrews 4:12

   God spoke over and over and over again through Scriptures, I mean really spoke. I would stop my reading and ask aloud why He’d do such and such, and then I’d look back down and there in plain text was my answer. At first, like any reasonable person, I was sure that it had to be coincidence, or probably just my own mind reading into things. But it happened over and over and over again—and the answers were specific and direct and immediate, as they would be in any ordinary conversation. I realized that something important was actually happening.

   Before I became a Christian, Christians would drive me insane by shrugging off important & difficult questions with the words, “Well, the Bible says so.” They said it like that should be enough for me, but it was useless to me, because they were taking for granted the Bible’s authority to speak, which I didn’t have any reason to recognize yet. They might as well have been telling me what someone random—like J.K. Rowling—had to say, and acting like that should be the final authority in my life.

   But when I became a firsthand witness to the living God speaking through Scripture, in truly unmistakable fashion, I knew that I was not just reading any old book—I was reading the Word of God with a capital W. This was something alive and active, something capable of connecting us in a very real way to the God of the Universe.

“All those the Father gives me will come to me,

and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.”

John 6:37

   Over months of prayer and Bible study and conversations with believers, I got to know God the

Father pretty well. God the Father convinced me to take seriously the possibility of Christ the Son, so I did my homework. I researched the historical, scientific, philosophical, and pragmatic evidence, and I was stunned by what I found: Even when I looked primarily at secular sources and leaned entirely on secular reasoning, the evidence fell overwhelmingly in favor of Christ Jesus—incarnated, crucified, resurrected, and ascended. A few months prior, I would have thought all of that COMPLETELY insane. But God showed me that I needed to be willing to believe the evidence that was all around me.

   In January of 2012, I told the Trinitarian God that I was ready to surrender. I had done my very best, for a very long time, to live life on my own, and He had convinced me, fully and finally, that no amount of effort, on my own, would ever be enough. So I gave up. I told Him that if He wanted me, He would have to step in to claim me. That was right before I went to sleep, and when I woke up in the morning, I opened my Bible (again, right to where I’d left off) and found John 6:37—the verse that saved my life. These words were specific to me, the precise answer to the final question that was keeping me from Christ, and I had a black-and-white conversion moment. One second, I was dead, and the next, I knew for the first time what it meant to be alive. The presence of the Holy Spirit became a part of me.

“In the beginning was the Word,

and the Word was with God,

and the Word was God.”

John 1:1

   I tell you all that, because I know that no sane person can trust or obey a God in whom they do not believe, and I want you to know that, when Christians talk about being “in a relationship” with God, that is not superficial theology or church talk. It looks different for a lot of us, but it is as literal as it is possible for a thing to be.

   And the Word of God is something we should all view with authority, because anyone who has gone to it in earnest can attest to the truth of John 1:1. This is not just a book. The Word of God is a part of God, and while I admit that I cannot even begin to understand how that works, my experience has more than proven it is true. So I trust the God who speaks through this Word, and that is the cornerstone of why I tithe.

   If you are not a Christian, then you need to consider seeking Christ. The question of God’s existence and your standing with Him is not one to take lightly. And what I have left to say will have no authority for you until you have found Him. But if you are a Christian, if you know the living God, then I will finish by outlining what He has shown me through his Word about why we should all take tithing seriously.

“The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it,

the world and all who live in it.”

Psalm 24:1

   The entire Scriptures, from start to finish, make clear that every single thing we have on this earth is a gift given to us. We are only stewards. Any steward is under obligation to do what the actual owner of a thing requires, doubly so if the thing is for your own good. If my mom gives me money for clothes, and I spend that money on anything else—even something that seems more important to me—I have robbed my mother, and worse yet, I have been deeply ungrateful for failing to just appreciate the gift she freely chose to give me. To take what is not ours and rule over it as though it were—that is robbery, plain and simple, and it is a slap in the face to anyone who would spend what is theirs for our good anyway.

“Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me.

But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’

In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse—

your whole nation—because you are robbing me.”

Malachi 3:8-9

   The same is true for the gifts we receive from God. Before there was a Law of Moses, Abel knew to bring God the first and best of his flock, and God credited him with doing “what is right” (Gen. 4:3-7). The Law of Moses came later, and it laid tithing down as a clear and formal expectation (Lev. 27:30-34). Then Christ came and insisted that we continue in this practice (Matt. 23:23; Luke 11:42), and his disciples more than followed suit (e.g., Acts 4:32-35, 1 Cor. 9:11-14, 2 Cor. 8:12-15).

   There can be no doubt that tithing is an expectation of God for all his people, regardless of where we fall in time or place or circumstance. That is the first realization that prompted me to start tithing, after being in relationship with the living God—If you’ve ever wondered what “fear of the Lord” feels like, actually bother to find out Who He Is and then seriously entertain the thought of robbing Him. That pretty much put me in my place.

“So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or

‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’

For the pagans run after all these things, and

your heavenly Father knows that you need them.

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness,

and all these things will be given to you as well.”

Matthew 6:31-33

   But God also reassures us. He reminds us that every command is for our good. He does not need our money or our obedience. He asks us to surrender for our sakes, not his. So as counterintuitive as it feels for me to hand over the first cut of my pay each month—even as I know that the mortgage and the car and the groceries and the grad school and everything else still has to come from it—I don’t hesitate, and neither does my husband. Because we know that God knows our needs better than we do, and we know that his love for us far exceeds any love we have for ourselves.

“Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also

reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also

reap generously. Each of you should give what you have

decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under

compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is

able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times,

having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.”

2 Corinthians 9:6-8

   This is the final passage I’d like to share with you. I came across it a couple weeks ago, just before I learned I’d have the chance to speak with my church family, and right when I’d been asking God for guidance on our giving. When I once again picked up my Bible where I’d left off, this is what the living God had to say to me through his Word—If I sow sparingly, I will also reap sparingly. What I give is a reflection of what’s in my heart, and my heart should be overflowing with gratitude for all that God has already done for me. And He will continue to give me everything I need—at all times—to follow in the plans He has for me. This is what I mean when I talk about God speaking directly to his people, and being crystal clear in what He says.

   If you don’t know this God, this God who is real and really willing to have a real relationship with you, then I cannot encourage you enough to seek Him! Seek Him with all your heart.

   And if you do know this God, then you know, like me, that we must be willing to surrender anything to the God who gives us everything.

   He will never fail to prove Himself faithful to us. That is why I tithe.

***

“‘Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in

my house. Test me in this,’ says the LORD Almighty, ‘and see if I will

not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much

blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.’”

Malachi 3:10