Financial Fiasco

Scripture: Nehemiah 13:10-11

I also discovered that the portions of the Levites had not been given them, so that the Levites and the singers who performed the service had gone away, each to his own field. So I reprimanded the officials and said, "Why is the house of God forsaken?" Then I gathered them together and restored them to their posts.

Insights:  The verses today really go on to verse fourteen.  I encourage you to read the rest of this section on your own.  Notice the first portion of verse ten with me.  It states, “I also discovered….”  After Nehemiah returned and found the compromised companionship going on in the temple, he began to look around with intentional eyes.  He was looking for other areas of compromise.  Nehemiah did not have to look very long before he found the people had stopped giving their tithes and offerings to the Lord.  In verse eleven he goes so far as to ask the question, “Why is the house of God forsaken?”  People today stop giving their tithes and offerings for a lot of reasons.  I will mention only three, but the list could be rather extensive.  One, people get mad at the preacher or the church and they say to themselves, “Well, I’ll show them, I just won’t support the church financially.”  This idea is like the little kid that gets mad at his friends and takes his ball and goes home so that no one will be able to play with it.  Two, people who use their money for their hobbies, wants, vacation, etc.  Their attitude goes like this, “God knows I need to relax, therefore, He will understand if I spend my money on ____________.”  This particular idea has become more of a problem in recent days with our consumer driven society of “I want it now and my way” kind of thinking.  Three, people who have too many monthly bills after the paycheck has already been spent.  They say, “I just can’t afford to give to the Lord right now.”  It really does not matter what the excuse or rational is at the end of the day what a person is really saying to God is, “I don’t trust You, God.”  Trusting God with our finances is the only item in the entire Bible in which God explicitly tells us to test Him.  The passage is found in Malachi chapter three.  God commands that we give.  Beloved, do not be like these that Nehemiah found upon his return.  Rather, let us be faithful givers to the Lord and let’s watch Him do amazing things through us as a result.

Questions:

1. Are you withholding your tithes and offerings from the Lord?
2. Have you come to realize that any excuse you give is only another way of saying, “Lord, I don’t trust you”?

Prayer: Father, everything I have belongs to You.  Help me to not be a hoarder of my finances, but rather a generous giver to You. Amen.