Harold Eberle, a former pastor who is now a traveling teacher and author from Yakima, Washington, relates that as a local church pastor he spent four continues weeks teaching every Sunday on the principle of tithing. He instructed everyone to write their current income inside their Bible cover. At the end of four months of tithing, 80% of the congregation saw an increase in their income or some kind of financial breakthrough.

The tithe is a biblical principle found throughout the Bible, and all of your budget should be built around this ten percent. Abraham tithed to Melchizedek before the law was in place, it was included in the law and Jesus affirmed it after he fulfilled the law. Malachi speaks of the tithe:

Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. But you ask, “How do we rob you?” “In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse-the whole nation of you—because you are robbing me. 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. I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit,” says the Lord Almighty. “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the Lord Almighty (Malachi 3:8-12).

I have tithed all of my Christian life, and I know that it works. The tithe is the first ten percent. Giving starts after you have paid your tithe into the storehouse. I am not looking for an argument or debate. No one is forcing you to tithe. Sometimes Christians think tithing is something they are forced to do by the church. It is not. Tithing benefits the person who is doing it. That works for me.