God’s Guarantee

I usually teach on this subject once a year at our church. I end the topic with God’s guarantee for those who will take this last course correction toward living in God’s financial plan. Again, it is truly the starting point as a follower of Jesus. Once you make the decision to cross the line in faith and trust God in this area of your life, your finances, your spiritual growth will abound. This is why I offer the guarantee. It goes something like this: “If after having been faithful to tithing for 90 days you don’t feel God kept His promise, providing for all your needs, we will return all of the money you’ve given to our church during this 90 day challenge.” You may wonder how I can be so confident as to offer a 90 day money back guarantee. The answer is simple, either God keeps all of His Word or we can’t trust Him with any of His Word.

Remember: He promises, when we are faithful with our finances to trust Him in tithing, to open the storehouses of heaven and pour out a blessing so great we cannot contain it. “‘Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do,’ says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, ‘I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put me to the test! Your crops will be abundant, for I will guard them from insects and disease. Your grapes will not fall from the vine before they are ripe,’ says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. ‘Then all nations will call you blessed, for your land will be such a delight,’ says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.” (Malachi 3:10-12)

I’ll never forget when I first became a pastor and decided to do this. I was so excited as I told the Elders in our church about my plan. While they all appreciated my enthusiasm and faith, one of them spoke up and said, “We should start setting aside a certain amount for those who are going to ask for their money back after the 90 day challenge is over.” Chuckling, I challenged them to think about what was just said and to consider whether or not they believed God kept His Word. It took only a moment before we were all laughing as we recognized the inconsistency of this statement with what we all believed, through faith and personal experience; God would indeed do what He said He would do. We offered the challenge that first year and every year since.

While I can’t offer this guarantee to people who do not tithe to the church I pastor, I challenge everyone to put God to the test with their finances and let Him prove Himself faithful and true. You do your part and He will always do His as promised “…open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in!“