Cadence Week 3 Devotions (With Scripture)
Monday, January 20, 2025, Read Malachi 3:8-10 - 8 “Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me. “But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’ “In tithes and offerings. 9 You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me. 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 there will not be room enough to store it.”
God is the source of every human blessing. As the Psalmist reminds us, “the earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it” (Psalm 24:1). Everything belongs to God, but all He requires is a tithe – a tenth. Notice that we are not called to “give” the whole tithe, but to “bring” the whole tithe. The tithe already belongs to God. We are simply to bring to our worship that which already belongs to God. Not to do so is equivalent to “robbing” God and robbing ourselves of His blessings.
Tuesday, January 21, 2025, Read Leviticus 27:30-34 - “‘A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the Lord; it is holy to the Lord. . . . . 32 Every tithe of the herd and flock—every tenth animal that passes under the shepherd’s rod—will be holy to the Lord. 33 No one may pick out the good from the bad or make any substitution. . . . 34 These are the commands the Lord gave Moses at Mount Sinai for the Israelites.”
What Abraham, the father of our faith, did as a voluntary act from a grateful heart, now becomes a pattern of worship for God’s covenant people. Bringing a tithe into the storehouse is one of the ways God’s people recognize their complete and utter dependence upon God for everything they have and everything they hope to be. And for those of us who now live under the new covenant of grace, may our standard of giving exceed that of those who lived under the law of Moses.
Wednesday, January 22, 2025, Read Proverbs 3:9-10 - “Honor the Lord with your wealth,
with the firstfruits of all your crops; 10 then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine.”
Honoring God with our wealth starts by putting God first in our finances, by making Him Master of our money. God is not only interested in what we give, but when we give it. Because whatever’s most important to us will be the first thing that comes out of our paycheck. And when we put God first in our giving, He will be first in every other area of our life. For where our treasure is, there will our hearts be also (see Matthew 6:21).
Thursday, January 23, 2025, Read 2 Samuel 24:24 – But the king replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on paying you for it. I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.”
Worship and sacrifice go hand-in-hand. You can’t have one without the other. In fact, according to the Apostle Paul, true and proper worship is experienced when we “offer our bodies (our very lives) as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God” (see Romans 12:1). A true worshiper would never dream of entering God’s presence empty-handed or offering God something that cost them nothing. May our worship be true and proper this weekend as we offer ourselves as living sacrifices and bring the whole tithe into the storehouse.
Friday, January 24, 2025, Read 1 Corinthians 16:1-2 - “Now about the collection for the Lord’s people: Do what I told the Galatian churches to do. 2 On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made.”
The concept of tithing continues into the New Testament as the Apostle Paul instructs the church to give regularly – “on the first day of every week”- and to give proportionately by setting “aside a sum of money in keeping with your income.” Now, Paul does not specify a percentage, but He does encourage proportional giving which means the more God blesses you the more you should give. Remember those who live under grace should always do more than those who live under the law. So along with bringing a tithe, we should always be thinking about giving in proportion to how God has given to us.