Stealing from God

I never want to be considered a thief. One of the early lessons I had to teach my four year old son was, "we can not take  a pack of gum from the store without paying for it". I had to teach him that stealing something is wrong and dishonors God. Being a thief is one of those horrible sins that we Christians think we will never do and we desire never to be labeled as. We hate robbers and condemn them for gross wrong doing in the eyes of God. But in this month's reading on generosity and giving to God, I came face to face with the truth that there are times I am a thief.

As God's chosen people returned from exile of 75 years in Babylon, they did not have much of anything. But God still commanded them to give to His work both materially and time wise. God wanted His children to give to the work of rebuilding Jerusalem and the Temple, and also to use their bodies in physical labor in the construction. This is where Malachi 3 comes into play. For some reason or another, the people of God had stopped giving to God for His work. They stopped being generous and had almost stopped altogether in giving to God's work. So God calls them out through His prophet and tells them to stop robbing God. God simply calls His children thieves becasue of their lack of giving to Him.

And here is where the rubber meets the road. If I am not giving to the work of God, I am robbing God; I am a thief. Simply put, if I do not surrender some of what I have, being my time, treasure and talent, to God, I am robbing God. So if I do not use my gifting in the church, even for  little, if I do not put a few dollars in the offering every time I gather with the body, and if I do not give a few minutes a week to the betterment of my church body; I am robbing God.

Do not be a thief. Give to God. Maybe it is only a few dollars. Maybe it is only 15 minutes folding bulletins. Maybe it is only making coffee for Sunday school. But we can all give to God in some form or another. And when we give to God we are not robbing God and in fact we are truly worshiping God. God gave us everything up to the point of the death of Himself. The least we can do is give a few bucks, a few minutes, and our ability to the work God is doing in the world.

Do not be a robber of God, be a giver instead. Let Malachi 3 transform our lives as children of the King!