Nehemiah 10:37 says,
"We will bring to the priests at the storerooms of the Temple the first of our ground meal, our offerings, the fruit from all our trees, and our new wine and oil. And we will bring a tenth of our crops to the Levites, who will collect these things in all the towns where we work."
God wants 10% of everything He blesses us with in our life...and, not just 10%...He wants the FIRST of everything He blesses us with to be returned to Him. So, if He blesses us with 86,400 seconds in each 24 hour period...he expects us to return to Him or His work 9,600 seconds each day. That's a mere 2 hours and 40 minutes.
I do not believe God expects us to be on our knees for 2 hours and 40 minutes each day BUT I do believe that He expects us to do His work each day. In addition to our normal time reading the Word, praying and spending quality time with Him, I believe that in order to tithe our 2 hours and 40 minutes each day, we need to do things that will glorify God and bring honor to His name. Make cookies for a neighbor that has been housebound...mow the yard of the neighbor that has been out of town...take a meal to the family down the street that just had a baby...offer to babysit someone's children while they go out for a nice evening with their spouse...there are a million different things you can do to share the love of Christ with others. Once you get 'used' to tithing your 2 hours and 40 minutes of time to God and His work...I'll bet you find yourself spending much more time than that giving!
We need to be good stewards of the things God has blessed us with...our time, our money, our talents, our body, our kids...just to name a few. What ever He give you...please be sure to return it back to Him.
Walking the walk & Talking the talk,
5 comments:
Great post, Debi! We can't just write a check for 10% of our income and call it good. Everything we have, including our time, belongs to God. We are to be good stewards of it all.
It is great to see people telling us we don't only need to tithe our money but our time also. We forget we should tithe our time, it is good for kids to learn this at an early age then they will not struggle with it when they are grown and have families of their own. I am ashamed, I don't believe I give 10% of my time to the Lord like I should be doing. Your post has reminded me this is just as important to God. Thanks for the reminder.
Blessings to you and love you.
This is something God has dealt with me about before. I want to give Him at least 2hours and 40minutes every day. After all, that day is a gift from Him!
Just clicking around, discovered Woman 2 Woman and now I'm peeking at some of the women behind it!
Whenever I read anything about time, I am always convicted about just how I spend mine. Do I treat it as the precious resource it is or just waste it with busyness?
Thanks, Debi.
so important to remember- a timely lesson to me.
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