Tithing

Sunday was the first time that I have tithed in a very long time. First of all I wanted to be honest about that. Being a seminary student you constantly hear about how hard it is to balance school and work, and finances. I totally agree with that. My experience so far on campus, God has been bestowing in his grace. To even think of questioning is dumb, but I do. So there you have it, I am guilty of two sins so far and probably many more. I pray, do I pray enough? No. It says in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. That brings me to my third sin. Being joyful always. I am not trying to make this a confessional I am just trying to figure out what am I thinking. Back to my original thought, praying. I pray, almost everyday, but the word says to pray constantly, when I think of something being constant, the first thing that comes to mind, is breathing. We are constantly breathing, why is praying any different than that. (Guilty) Be joyful always, not even close, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.... WOW. I am sitting here feeling very ashamed. So you asking yourself, why did he title this message "tithing" I remember when I was very obedient in my tithing, I mean its all God's money anyways right? The bible tells us to give 10%, and for me right now, that is a huge number. This is my point that I am trying to get across, why tithing is important. Last week, I sat down and planned out my finances for the next three months. The income that I make at my job, I was going to be able to pay all my bills consistently until May. Once May came, I was going to have to find something to cover like $400.00. So I said to myself, its cool, school will be getting over, and I can find somewhere to work part time. A co-worker even suggested that I cut their grass. So God starting revealing to me how much in control he was. Also, last week and church we had a guy speak to us in our Sunday school class. He spoke about just surrendering everything to God and not worrying about it. So, I did what he told me, I prayed, I sat down and did some forecasting and I prayed again. The next few sentences are purely the work of our Father in Heaven, affirming my call to ministry. Last week around Tuesday I received a check for $600 from the Georgia Baptist Convention. I thought to myself, OK God, I'm sorry, please forgive my doubting. I sat and I cried, and had a hard time going back to work. My heart ached, my body was shaking and all my knees knew how to do was bend. An answered prayer. Sunday I wrote my tithe to my church and didn't think twice about it. Monday, I went to my PO box on campus and I received three envelopes. One was a cc offer (Cabala's, kind of hard to resist) the second was my bank statement, and the third was a letter from GA. I opened it first, cause the return address was for Battlefront Ministries, Inc. from Rome Ga. I have never heard about them, so I opened, thinking I got on a mailing list for being a seminary student from Georgia. It was a post card, and on the front was a picture and a description of their ministry. They specialize in marriage outings and other stuff. I was like, wow maybe someday?!!! I turned over the card and there was a little note from Sam, it read, Aaron, please accept this gift from a donor that requests to be unnamed, I thought, gift? where? I looked back in the envelope only to find a check that was folded. I instantly began to shake my head and just whisper, I hear ya God. I unfolded the check, and to my disbelief again, I began to weep. This unnamed donor from GA, sent me a check for $1000. As I write this my heart screams out to our Lord and humbly accepts his gifts. I have learned so much from being a seminary student, but the things that God is teaching me, no professor could ever compete with that. Knowing that I, this sinner, who was set free from the blood of Jesus Christ, is obediently following after God. That God, is taking care of me every step of the way. That makes me cry and realize, that he is up there, sitting on his throne, loving me. My desire for this blog is for you to see prayer in action, but also that God does answer prayers, so PRAY.