6 “I the LORD do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. 7 Ever since the time of your ancestors you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the LORD Almighty.
“But you ask, ‘How are we to return?’
8 “Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me.
“But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’
“In tithes and offerings. 9 You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me. 10 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. 11 I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe,” says the LORD Almighty. 12 “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the LORD Almighty.
Just look at the back end of verse 10 again. Are you getting this? "Test me in this..." God wants us to test Him. Call Him on it.
At work we have a policy: "Work now; grieve later." In other words, if there is some sort of issue (barring an immediate safety issue) employees are to take it up after the shift; meantime, they are to get done what they are supposed to do. I am the boss; that's just the way it is. I try to be fair, understanding, pleasant, reasonable, charitable, appreciative, gracious -- but there is a bottom line, and if you insist I will show you where that is. I would like for all of my employees to work the way they know they should -- to work up to their potential. It is then I can show my employees how good of a boss I can be; it is then I can lavish them with praise, gifts, favors. I love that!
God is faithful. God is just. God is love. God never changes; He gets it right every time. God is the King; that's just the way it is. BUT, when we do not serve Him according to the potential He has bestowed upon us, He cannot bless us with more! God wants to bless us. God doesn't want separation, tension, strife in our relationship. He wants those who have turned from Him to come back home, those who have never loved or served Him to submit to Him and live a life of joy and fulfillment. (If there's one thing I've discovered, it's that rebellious people are not happy people. Rebellious people usually wind up hurting themselves more than anyone else they try to hurt.)
Test Him; try Him. If you serve Him and He doesn't bless you, pick up that chip, put it back on your shoulder and keep walking -- don't look back. If you surrender to His plan for you and He doesn't heal your life, grab that monkey, stick him in your backpack and ride -- no regrets.
But if you're anything like millions of others who have tried Jesus, I think you'll be completely satisfied!
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