The Year of Financial Renewal

Malachi 3:10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. 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.

This story took place in our home seven years ago. I'd like to share it with you.

Mark and I had recently recommited our lives to the Lord. We owned a business and Mark was beginning to feel a drawing toward a career change. Two different people approached him about selling the business. After some prayer we agreed that this would be a good idea. The business was sold in June 1999. Unfortunately, after the sale was completed, the profit that we were expecting to receive decreased dramatically. As well, the path that we felt Mark was to take for his career change did not happen as we had thought it would.

Mark had the summer off with our children. At the end of the summer, God had spoke to us and we began leading the Childrens' Ministry at our church on a volunteer basis. But this story is not about that - it's about tithing.

With my husband unemployed our finances became tight.

In November 1999, I went to a conference in Toronto. While I was there, I bought a book called, The Revelation of Financial Renewal. From what I read on the back of the book it looked like it might have some information that might help us with our current money situation.

Mark and I both read the book right away. It gave us a new understanding for the importance of tithing. We had been wanting to tithe, but felt that we could not afford to. After our mortgage and monthly expenses we had nothing left over for God. However, after reading this book, we were coming to a realization that we could not afford to not tithe.

We then determined to give God 10% of our earnings and started to trust in Him for the rest. According to Malachi 3:10, God tells us to test Him on this promise - so that's what we decided to do.

In January 2000 we began to get discouraged. Our mortgage was set up for weekly payments and we had missed 5 payments in a row. Our telephone was disconnected for non-payment. We began to pray earnestly. We needed a miracle. I remember asking God to help us out with a money gift, as I had heard Him do for others. We were working diligently in our church and had started to tithe; we wanted God to bless us.

God answered our prayer. We received a money gift of $1000!!!! This was just what we needed to pay our mortgage up to date.

God is never late - but he is always on time.

The following month Mark began working a little bit and gradually his hours increased. However, after being without a pay cheque for so long it is difficult to play catch up.

In June 2000 we were having some car troubles and we had our car repaired. The bill came to $200 and Mark wrote a cheque. I completely forgot to write the cheque in our record book and unfortunately it bounced. Money was of course still very tight and this error was going to set us back further than we were. Immediately after we discovered the error, God blessed us with a money gift and of course the amount was.......$200.

In November 2000, Mark was taken to a conference in Calgary where Clive Pick was the main speaker. Clive Pick wrote the book, The Revelation of Financial Renewal, that I mentioned earlier. Mark came away with a greater level of understanding of God's purposes for our finances.

At the beginning of November, Mark had dropped off his car for more repairs. He had promised the man that he would pay the bill by the end of the month. After Mark had returned from Calgary it was the end of the month. We had been expecting to receive some extra money around the 20th, but it had not arrived. It was now time for Mark to go and pay the car repair bill, but we did not have the money. Mark left our house telling me that he would have to negotiate paying the bill over a couple of payments. The repair bill was $500. When he arrived at the man's house, the Lord spoke to Mark and said "You gave this man your word. I will look after the money." So, Mark obeyed God and wrote a cheque for $500 dated for the next day. Mark had a peace about the situation.

The very next morning we were given a cheque for.............$500!!!!! A couple that we knew had been praying together that morning and God had told them to bless Mark and Rhonda with $500. Wow!

God blessed our obedience!

The beginning of December brought about another financial crisis. Our mortgage payment is due and we are short the funds again. Because of the 5 weekly payments that we had defaulted on at the beginning of the year our bank had changed our mortgage payments to be monthly.

December is a tight month for most people and we were not going to be able to afford much for Christmas this year, let alone be able to make our December mortgage payment. We prayed. I remember asking God for some 'Holy Intervention'. The first week of December, we were blessed again. We were given a money gift of $1000 - enough to pay our mortgage payment. Praise God!

God has blessed us in so many ways during the years since then. He is always meeting our needs and going beyond our expectations. We just have to be obedient and put our complete trust in Him.