By Brett Gordon
When I became a Christian on December 6, 2005, I soon realized that this would become the kiss of death to my marriage. My second wife wanted nothing to do with Christ or the Church, and eventually, that also meant me too. Divorced three months later and then laid off from a very lucrative job seven months after that, I found myself wondering why ‘bad things’ were happening to me in quick succession soon after becoming a Christian…. I thought life could only get better after becoming a Christian. But “better” to who’s standard, mine? I was soon to learn that my life would become “better” only to the Lord’s plan for me, and His process of making Christians “better”, always involve a degree of suffering, pain and sacrifice.
One year after I became a Christian (and two months since being laid off with no job prospects at all – during the winter, no less, when no one is hiring) I searched the Scriptures one night for any promises of the Lord that He followed up with an immediate blessing (by this time, I really needed a blessing). The one promise that really stood out for me came from these two verses:
So, here’s what actually happened – every word of this account is TRUE.
By the end of that December, 12 years ago, I was behind on my rent and behind on my car payments. I was able to get extensions on both, but with the money that I was receiving from unemployment each week, I barely had enough to pay for food, heat, electricity and gasoline. Then, here’s this commandment to tithe… tithe WHAT? – I asked myself, with a contemptuous snicker, but at this low point in my life, what did I have to lose? So, I tithed 10% of my unemployment check and dropped it into the offering plate. A week later, I received a notice from my bank that the check bounced, and if that wasn’t bad enough, they added a $35 insufficient funds fee on top of this embarrassingly bad news. I straightened out my finances, and the second week, I tithed my unemployment check and it too bounced! At this point, I was wondering when the “blessings from the Lord” were going to kick in before I continued to get deeper and deeper into debt – and from tithing! Granted, it was my mismanagement of money, but there was so little money to stretch, that I just had a difficult time staying on top of my meager finances at that time.
Anyway, by the third week, all was well. The tithing checks stopped bouncing, and though this was a good thing, I still had FOUR MORE MONTHS of unemployment to contend with.
Out of desperation, halfway through my 6-month unemployment, I invited my son, my daughter-in-law and my newborn granddaughter to move in with me. They too were having financial difficulties, and this arrangement made it possible for us to continue eating.
On the last Sunday of my 6-month unemployment, (again, I have to stress, the “last day”) I had run out of unemployment insurance, my car was going to get repossessed that week, and my property manager was beginning the process of evicting us from my apartment. Starting on Monday, I would be flat broke with NO money coming in, and still, NO job prospects, and soon to be without a means of transportation and a place to live. Sitting on the couch with my daughter-in-law that Sunday night, I told her that I’d have to take on a couple of jobs, such as bagging groceries and bussing tables. I was dead serious. She felt bad for me, but I was not going to give up on my faith and I was not going to stop tithing when the Lord was so clear about His promise to bless me.
The next morning – Monday morning – I was getting dressed to go out and “beat the pavement”, as they say. The phone rang. My daughter-in-law said, “Dad, should I answer it?” I told her, “No – it’s just another telemarketer” (we were getting a lot of calls from these people during that time). After about 7 rings, I told her to go ahead and answer it. Am I ever glad she did. She said, “It’s someone for you, Dad”. I figured it was a debt collector, or the car finance company or the long-suffering property manager, but when I answered it, the voice on the other side said, Hi Brett? This is ‘so-and-so’… I saw your resume online and you appear like a good fit for my team. Would you be interested?” I tried to calmly respond in the affirmative without appearing like I was going cry or scream as though I’d just won the State Lottery. He then asked me, “if I could get you in on a 3-month contract – with the option of picking you up permanently, what would you ask for per hour?” Now here is the part of the story that may bewilder you, because any normal person out of work for half a year would have low-balled himself – just to get the job, but something in me pushed my mouth to aim high – and I mean REALLY high. Without hesitation, ‘so-and-so’ replied, “That’s not going to be a problem. Can you come in tomorrow for an interview?”
Hence, I got the job. I was now making TWICE the salary as I was before I was laid off from that awesome, very lucrative job. Again – TWICE the salary, and with more benefits and perks that I ever even heard of. While I had been testing the Lord (per His request), He had also been testing me, and He took the full liberty of testing me to the very end of my rope – after all my unemployment insurance had run out; after I was about to lose my car; after I was about to be evicted… You see, He was testing the sincerity of my faith, as much as I was testing His promises.
Obviously, I continued to tithe, and even more so. It seemed the more money I gave, the more the blessings came to me – to the point when I actually told the Lord (as God is my witness), “Lord, please, no more! I can’t take anymore – You are too good to me!” Yet, the blessings came in fast and furious. At this point, I was not giving away my money to get His blessings, as though He owed me anything, but because I wanted to give and give and give, as HE had given (and continues to give) so much to me! Take one baby step toward Christ, and He will take three giant steps toward you.
Within the last 10 years, I married the finest woman I could ever have dreamed up myself. We’re married, so of course there are issues, but we love each other more and more each day, and this is not a lie – I speak the truth – our marriage, our love and respect for each other gets better and better each day! I love her more than life itself, and this is the truth. Yet, on top of this, we have this gorgeous house we bought 8 years ago – half paid for already. Both of our vehicles are paid for. We even bought my parents a car last year and helped my brother buy a van. We have two refrigerators and three freezers LOADED at all times – and neither of us can figure it out because it’s just the two of us, yet we’re always trying to find a space to put the bottle of salad dressing back into the fridge. It just doesn’t make sense!
Unless…. You remember what I mentioned earlier, when the Lord Himself PROMISED to ‘pour down blessings until there is no more need’; ‘that my vine in the field will never fail to bear’, that if I TEST THE LORD in this promise, ‘there will always be food in my house’ (and there always is!); ‘that my barns will be filled with plenty, and that my vats will be BURSTING with wine’. ALL TRUE!
Does the Lord lie? NO! Does the Lord honor His promises? YES!
You’d think it would be a no-brainer to tithe, but most Christians think they know best, or they are afraid to step out in faith where money is concerned, or perhaps, they just don’t have any faith in God’s promises to us. Then there are those who will put the Lord to this test, but with the wrong motive. Don’t think that by just tithing you are going to experience what I’ve experienced. What He is looking for in the tither is trust and faith in Him. He’s asking us to put him to the test – not for financial gain, but to look deep inside and see where our hearts really are. Are you willing to tithe – that is, obey the Lord – even though you suffer and sacrifice and experience pain? Where is your faith? Do you believe what He says or not? The Lord loves a GENEROUS person. If you cannot tithe as though it was all the money you had in the world (like the widow in Mark 12:44), then do not expect any blessing from the Lord. You’d be like one of those city reservoir water tanks that are full to the brim in foul, stagnant water and covered in a thick film of filth and algae – completely undrinkable. Such people save and save and save, but their wealth does no one any good – including themselves, since such people won’t even use their own wealth to care for themselves, such is their greed. Instead, be like a fresh lake of clear, clean drinkable water, with streams of fresh water coming in, and streams of fresh water going out. Such a lake will never dry up, and its depths will be so full as to lap and nourish all the lavish shores it feeds all around.
Go ahead, test the Lord, for He is good. You can take my word for it.
Brett Gordon