Over the next few days as we count down to the “day of love,” I want to talk about some epiphanies of love that have taken years of trial and error to figure out. I don’t know why it takes me so long to get some things, but I guess the school of hard knocks was designed for people like me. I want to start off with a symbolic approach God has asked us to take so he can pour out the blessings and love us beyond what even makes good sense to smart people. The process is so straightforward, even non believers get blessed if they adhere to the plan. I stand in awe, because it always works.
Several days ago, I mentioned to you that God often dares us to do things so He can keep His promises to us. One that stands out, head and shoulders above the rest, yet is often the most neglected is found in Malachi 3:8–10: Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. But you ask, How do we rob you? In tithes and offerings. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse. . . . 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 you will not have room enough for it. For years as a believer I knew this but did not realize how true it was until . . .
Three years after the holding company sold off my division, my savings, retirement accounts, and proceeds from a home and garage sales vanished — the money was gone. My consulting business was non-existent. One day while steeped in self-pity, I came across the Malachi verse. I lied to myself that there wasn’t anything to give. But there was the last $197 in the checking account. I heard a voice say “give it all.” I laughed out loud because it was the most ludicrous “thought” I ever had. However, the thought would not go away. It haunted me mercilessly until I wrote a check to our church. The next day was Sunday and we were broke. On Monday, I opened the mailbox and found a check for $300 from a company six months behind in payments they owed me. Over the next few months the checks and new business continued to come. I realized then how stupid and faithless I had been. God let me do my own thing and fail — miserably. I had a wealthy Father (Psalm 50:9-11) willing to help me if I would symbolically acknowledge that it was all His anyway. I ignored his loving promise and it cost my whole family.
From that day forward, I have never second-guessed the promise He gave me. When we give to him, acknowledging that it is all His anyway, it is the same as praising him for His sovereignty, omnipotence, omnipresence, and His foreknowledge of all our needs which are supplied “according to His [not ours] riches in glory.” How much more could a Father love you than by saying “If you symbolically illustrate that it is all mine, I will make sure you lack nothing.” That is a deal I can no longer refuse. I will not say that I have been so strong and well founded that I have never worried. However, I know this: I do not miss this symbolic ritual and He has remained ever faithful in every way. I wonder now how I could have been so blind and how is it that so many others choose to remain unblessed? Please kids, choose to be blessed.
Love, Dad