Fixing The Holes in Your Pockets

                 Fixing the Holes in Your Pockets

      Have you ever gotten so busy living, you don’t have time for life. It is really easy to do.  This summer has proven that to me.  I love doing my blog, but I also love helping others and traveling.  This summer I have tried to do it all. When you do that something has to get short changed. This summer it has been my blog and my Lord.  You have to make hay while the sun shines, in my case it is get things built, and see what you want to see before the snow flies.

     When I first came back to the Lord after running for years and having lost everything I had, including family, business, home, car and friends.  My life finally turned around. Having nothing but the time of the day, I started tithing it by reading the Bible two and a half hours a day. I did that for several years.  It was not hard when I was unemployed. The Good Lord provided me with a job driving over the road that still afforded me the time to do my reading.  Gradually as I got back on my feet I tended to stop tithing my time and started tithing my income.  Looking back that was a mistake. I should have kept doing both. The Lord provided both and it was my choice that caused me to drift away a bit.

    Years ago listening to Christian Radio out on the road I heard a sermon by J. Vernon McGee and it impressed me deeply.  It went something like this.  A man came to J. Vernon and said he needed J. Vernon to pray for him.  He explained that he had started tithing some time back and had been truly blessed.  He said he had no problem tithing when he started and his income was $10,000. Then his income went to $50,000 and a $100,000. Then his income finally went to over a million dollars a year.  He said he was having a hard time tithing on so much money and would J. Vernon pray with him on the matter.  J. Vernon said sure and started to pray. “Lord this man had no problem tithing before you blessed him so richly, but now he is. Lord I pray you adjust his income to a level he feels comfortable tithing on.” The man thanked J. Vernon for helping him change his perspective.

   Often when people hit hard times they tend to cut back on their tithe, but in reality that is the last place they should cut back.  If you read in the third chapter of Malachi verses 8-12 the Lord explains clearly that when you fail to honor him, he has no obligation to honor you.  He challenges “us” to challenge him and see if he will not open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing we are not able to receive.  The thing to notice is that we have to rise to the challenge, not cut back. We also need to understand that often times the Blessings come in other forms than money.  He opens doors of opportunity and provides for our health and Blessings on our loved ones.

     What I am saying can be proven from the Word of God.  In Haggai 1 verses three to eleven it makes it pretty clear that the problems we have come from how our relationship with God effect’s our Blessings from him.  I am sure many people can relate to verse six.  I know in my own life experiences that when I have come up short, the problem was my attitude and actions.  It was not God’s short comings, but my own

    I have been retired eleven years now and struggled for some time on Social Security income. It was quite a step down from $150,000 a year to barely $14,000. We never missed a payment though. It was tight for awhile, but blessings come when you least expect them.  A couple of years ago my income quadrupled overnight. I started receiving Agent Orange compensation, for something that happened almost fifty years ago.  

      It has been a challenge, but my goal is to return to reading the way I did back when I was down and out and broke.  It was much easier back then, but God did not promise it would be easy.  He just said we had to obey His Word.  If you do, you will be blessed.  It is as simple as that. God said it in His Word, over and over, and He will do it. Period.