Page 72 - Breaking the Curse of Poverty David Owusu

“Giving”: God’s Absolute Blue Print To Prosperity

This is what was practiced in the Jewish Festival of “Feast of First
Fruits”. The Israelites showed honour and gratitude by giving God
the first portion of their harvest before they could have any part of
it, this was a sign of worship.

For our giving to depict the right worship that will rise as sweet
scent aroma before our LORD, we need to understand the essence
of giving, and also have the relation of giving that it should stem
from the depths of our hearts to the Lord.

Our hearts have to be right; it should not be out of manipulation of
the divine hand of God. The LORD cannot be fooled; He searches
the hearts of men.

What we behold is what we worship. The Lord is the King of Kings,
he owns everything. What would the God that owns it all need
from us? After all what we have, He has given us in the first place.

Job 41:11 “who has first given to me, that I should repay him?
Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine” (ESV)

The second limb of giving that receives heavens accolades is when
we give in obedience to what we have been commanded. We
should not be held in contempt by God for breaking the covenant
by withholding our giving. Malachi admonishes us from doing so;
placing emphasis on the understanding that giving of our tithes,
which is the ten (10%) percent of our income keeps us away from
the curses of disobedience.

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