Boy,
I wish I could figure this out. When Jesus is tempted by the devil to jump from
the top of the temple to allow the angels to catch him, Jesus responds, “It
says: do not put the Lord your God to the test.” (Luke 4:12). But when I read
about tithing, God says, “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that
there may be food in my house. Test me in this, and see if I will not open the
floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room
enough for it.” (Malachi 3:10). God says,
“Do not test me,” and then God also says, “test me.” So, what am I
supposed. . .
“Steve.”
.
. . . supposed
to do?
“Steve!”
“What?
Is that you God?”
“Yes,
it is I. Let’s talk.”
“OK,
what do you want to talk about?”
“We
are going to talk about testing Me. Do not focus on the test, but focus,
instead, on the attitude behind the test. In Luke, when the devil tempts my Son,
the devil’s attitude is one of defiance. The devil wants to undermine my
authority. If Jesus were to jump, my Son would be obeying the devil’s commands
and not my commands. Jesus knows that it wrong to jump and that this is sin.
Through the attitude of defiance, Jesus’ jumping would be a test of how I
would respond to sin. And you know what I think of sin.”
“Yeah,
I know.”
“In
Malachi, when you test me about tithing, your attitude is one of humility,
because you and I are working together by trying to do my will regarding how you
handle money. Do you see the difference?”
“I
think so. It is not a good idea to have an attitude of defiance and to test You
by doing something that I know is wrong. However, it is a good idea to test You
when I approach You with humility when dealing with something that requires your
support to do right.”
“Right.
That’s lesson 1. Now, since you were reading Malachi, let’s go back to
Malachi and work on lesson 2.”
“Uh-oh.
What’s lesson 2?”
“We
are going to talk about money. We are going to talk about how you view money and
how I view money.”
“OK.
So . . . . ”
“Do
you really think that I need your money?”
“Yea,
you keep asking me for it, so I figure you need it.”
“Steve,
I created the Universe. I created everything in the Universe. I can create
whatever I want by just speaking the word. Let’s try again, Steve. Do you
really think I need your money?”
“Well,
no, I guess not. But if You don’t need my money, then why do You ask for
it?”
“Steve,
I view money just like an orthodontist views braces.”
“What?”
“Hang
in there with me, Steve, and see if you can follow my logic. An orthodontist
uses braces as a tool to keep a constant steady pressure on the teeth so that a
person’s teeth are aligned the way the orthodontist wants. The tool is the
braces, the task is to get the teeth straight. The goal of the orthodontist is
to get the teeth aligned.”
“OK.
So what does getting teeth straight have to do with money?”
“Steve,
what do you think about most?”
“Girls.”
“I
know that, but that is another lesson. What else do you think about a lot?”
“Well,
I think about paying my bills, or having enough money to pay for the kid’s
education, or having enough money to retire, or having plenty of money so that I
can buy a lot of nice things. I guess I think about money a lot.”
“Right,
so the best way for Me to teach you a little bit each day is to teach you about
something that you think about every day.”
“OK.”
“Now,
back to the braces; the orthodontist views braces as the tool. His task is to
align the teeth. I view money as a tool, my task is to align your spirit with my
spirit. Money is the tool. Getting your spirit right is the task. Focus on the
task, not the tool.”
“So,
what you really care about is my attitude and my spirit, and how I handle my
money serves as a constant gentle pressure to get my spirit straight just like
the constant gentle pressure of braces is to make my teeth straight?”
“You
got it, Steve.”
“So,
if I want to, I do not have to give you any money at all?”
“That’s
right, Steve. I gave you the gift of free choice. You can choose what you want
to do and do it. But, before you decide, let’s go back to your original
question about testing God. Do you want to test Me, or do you want to test
Me?”
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