Tithing My Time

Yesterday in Church I heard a really good teaching on Tithe.  When I hear the word “tithe” I think of money; usually of some church asking for it.  But tithing is giving our FIRST-FRUITS.  It is giving the first of everything in faith even though we don’t know what is coming next.  In the Bible, it was the first born animal or child that was given to God.  God required the first of the fruits of the field, even before the storehouses were full for the coming year.  He wanted them to give the first of everything out of faith that He would provide the rest.  The best loved and most well known verse about tithing is found in Malachi 3:8-10.  God says, “You have robbed me.  But you ask, ‘how do we rob you?’ In tithes and offerings.  You are under a curse. . . because you are robbing me.  Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse. . . Test me in this . . . 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.”  Tithing does not mean paying all your bills and then if there is any left over, giving it to God.  It is giving 10% FIRST and then trusting God that there will be enough left over to pay the bills.  

 But money is not the only thing God wants.  As I was listening to the teaching, I realized that there are two things we never have enough of: Money and Time.  In the same way we give what’s left over of our money to God when all the bills are paid, we give what is left over of our time after all of our tasks and chores are complete, and there is usually none left to give!  So, if God requires my  first-fruits, then He requires the first part of my day as well!  I have gone through periods where it is no sacrifice to give my first morning hours to God, but not as a rule.  Usually I go to bed at night and ask God to wake me up when He wants to meet with me.  I know this sounds silly, but it has worked for years.  If I need to start getting ready at 5:30, I will open my eyes at 5:00.  This morning, for example, I asked God to wake me up before it was time to leave and I opened my eyes at 7:00.  I groaned and asked God why He didn’t wake me up, then I saw the snow outside and there is a 2 hour delay for school!  God let me sleep in 2 whole hours!  Anyway, God has been faithful to wake me up when He wants to meet with me, but I am not always faithful to listen.  I have many excuses, most of them sound convincing in the wee hours of the morning.  I suffer from horrible fatigue.  It comes with the whole depression/anxiety package.  It is an unnatural fatigue where I literally can sleep anywhere I happen to be.  So, in the morning when God wakes me up, I tell Him that I need to get my sleep so that I won’t be tired all day.  Then I go back to sleep until my back-up alarm wakes me up.  I get up and feed the animals and try to sit down to hurriedly spend a few minutes with God.  I start thinking of all the things I need to accomplish in the day and it all becomes overwhelming.  I end up spending my precious minutes in self-pity and I end up with a rushed, “Thanks God for the day, bless all the people in my life, I will try to spend time with you tonight, amen.”  Then, I am tired all day anyway, despite the extra hour or two of sleep I stole from God.  I am “robbing God” just like He says in Malachi. 

So, if the same principles of MONEY apply to TIME, which I believe they do, if I am faithful in giving my first-fruits of TIME to Him, then He will “throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that [I] will not have room enough for it!”  He will “prevent pests (fatigue, unexpected circumstances, lack of motivation, etc.) from devouring [my] crops (the rest of my day) and the vines in [my] fields will not cast their fruit (my day will be fruitful)!  Can you imagine having more time in the day than you know what to do with?  But oh how hard it is to get up in the morning!  I guess this is where the sacrifice comes in.  But God asked me to test Him in this, so test Him I will!  I will, in faith, give Him the first part of my day and trust that He will carry me though any circumstances that come my way during the rest of it.