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The Bible treats tithing as the first tenth of what comes in, given back to God before anything else is spent. It is not a tax, and it is not a purchase. It is the one place God openly invites you to test His faithfulness.
One thing before we go further. This article is not asking you for anything. Miracle Word Ministries has taught on money for over fifty years, and the questions people bring us about it are real. Where you give is between you and God and your local church. Read this as teaching, not as an appeal.
The teaching on this page is Marilyn Hickey's, from In Your Hand, in her own words. The few lines we add only connect them.
Is tithing required for Christians?
Here is the verse every tithing conversation eventually arrives at:
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.
Malachi 3:10 (NIV)
Notice what God says! It is not a threat. It is an invitation, and it is the only place in all of Scripture where God says: test Me.
What is the one area in which God says we can test Him? Tithing.
So is it “required”? That is the wrong first question. The better question is this: are you willing to find out if God is who He says He is?
Even rooting our understanding in the reality that everything we have comes from God doesn’t make it easy to give back to the church. God knows it is hard for us to give money; that’s why He invites us to find out just how faithful He is! Don’t be scared off by the 10% number and simply give up on any form of tithing. Start by praying about how much you should sacrificially give to church, then set aside that amount every month first to give to God. Read Malachi 3:10 again. You will see that God is faithful. This can help you grow in your giving.
So: start where you are, pray about the amount, set it aside first rather than last, and read the promise again. That is the whole method. It is not complicated. It is only hard.
Why does the Bible talk about money as seed?
Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown.
Luke 8:8 (NIV)
Seed is the Bible's favorite picture for money in the hands of a believer, and the reason is simple: seed only does what it was made to do once it leaves your hand.
Living out the Word in faith is seed, and that includes how we steward money. Money can be a blessing to God, to others, and to us, but only if we sow in faith. Will all seed grow into a great harvest? Of course not, but no one reaped a big harvest by simply holding onto what God gave. If you do not sow the seed, you cannot expect the harvest. God does not bless what you keep from Him; He blesses what you sow.
Will all seed grow into a great harvest? Of course not. This is not a formula. It is trust. And the thing that stops most of us from sowing has a name:
The devil’s greatest weapon against you trusting God with your money is fear. Fear says, “Hold onto what you have and do not give it away!” but you cannot show me in the Bible where it says hoard your money and your possessions while you tremble before the devil. Faith reminds you that God has given you what you need to overcome the evil one. Every time you sow seed in faith, you are planting victory in your life.
Fear says hold on. Faith says sow. Every believer we have ever prayed with about money has been standing somewhere between those two sentences.
What did Jesus say about money?
Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?
Luke 16:10–11 (NIV)
The love of money leads to all kinds of evil. Money itself is a neutral tool, but with the dangers of greed, it has many pitfalls. We must learn to look beyond the shame, fear, and misplaced values around money to realize that God alone meets our needs. How we use money is an opportunity to trust Him more.
Money is neutral. Your relationship to it is not. And contentment matters as much as giving:
Only using money to pay bills is a boring way to live. Some of the most fun you can have with your money is secretly blessing people. They may not know to thank you, but God sees all. He is the one who rewards your efforts. Contentment is key to generosity. If you never think you have enough, you will not look to the needs of others, but trusting God settles the heart. Whether we have a little or a lot, it is our trust in God that allows us to live each day faithfully using what He has placed in our hand.
What if I do not have much to give?
This is the question most people are really asking, and Scripture answers it with a widow and two coins.
So He said, “Truly I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all; for all these out of their abundance have put in offerings for God, but she out of her poverty put in all the livelihood that she had.”
Luke 21:3–4
How about you? I know it can be hard to give when income is limited, but you must remember that God is not. Consider the poor widow in Luke 21:1-4. She only had a couple of coins to tithe, but Jesus commended her. Why? Because she faithfully gave what was in her hand. Although it was a small offering, Jesus said that gift was more than all the others combined, because she “put in all the livelihood that she had” (vv. 3-4).
Small gifts given with great trust please Jesus.
The measure was never the amount. The measure was the trust! And the same principle runs the other way for those who have plenty:
You may have a little, you may have a lot, but every resource is from God’s hand, and it belongs to Him. Live like it!
Saving, giving, tithing: the three practices
Three money practices taught me how to sow seed: Saving, giving, and tithing.
Most teaching on money picks one of these and ignores the other two. Hold all three together, and the order matters.
- Saving. Faith and an emergency fund are not opposites: “In chapter one, I wrote that the storms of life will come. For this reason, everyone should have savings and an emergency fund. This way, you are faithfully stewarding the good that God has given to you for when times get tough.”
- Giving. Generosity to people, often quietly, as an act of trust: “Never forget: What leaves your hand in faith goes into God’s hand and He multiplies it.”
- Tithing. The first tenth, set aside before the rest is spent, as the one place God invites the test.
Saving sows security. Giving sows surprise. Tithing sows blessing.
A story about one seed
None of this is theory. What follows happened in the early years of a marriage, and it does not skip the part where the money was frightening.
Early on in our ministry, Wally and I were scrimping and saving to buy a new car. Our car broke down one time too many and we borrowed another so that we could get to church to preach on Sundays. We were finally making progress with our savings, but when some traveling evangelists came to town, Wally was convinced he had to give our car money to their ministry. I wanted to act deeply spiritual, but I was worried. Not a little worried, but awake-in-the-night-and-asking-questions worried. Still, Wally believed God had told him to give and that He would provide us with a car. Wally pointed to the words of Jesus: “Therefore do not worry . . . For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” (Matthew 6:31-34) Sure enough, that seed began growing into a God-given future that kept bringing in harvest. In making that seed connection, the traveling evangelists asked if we wanted to host a visiting preacher at our church. We were open to anyone who wanted to help build God’s kingdom, so we hosted this Spirit-led preacher at our Sunday night service. That evening, he asked Wally, “Do you need a car? I see the letters C-A-R over your head.” Wally replied, “Kind of.” Kind of! Not only had Wally given away our car money, he seemed nonchalant when I felt desperate. But the visiting preacher called for an offering to buy us a car. Sure enough, the money came in. I loved that car because it was gifted by God, but He was not done. Our ministry kept growing, and we kept partnering with the traveling evangelists. They even helped our ministry grow in global efforts. I am still reaping from that seed!
Notice two things about that story. The one who sowed the seed was not the spiritual one in the marriage, and the story says so! And the harvest was not a car. The car came, but the harvest still arriving decades later was a partnership that shaped the ministry. God answers bigger than the request, and often later than your deadline.
What tithing is not
Now be careful, because this teaching can be misread. Three things it is not.
Tithing is not a transaction. Malachi 3:10 is an invitation to trust, not a vending machine, and not every seed becomes a great harvest. Give expecting God to be faithful. Do not give expecting a specific return by a specific date.
Tithing is not a way to earn God's love. You already have it. If guilt is doing the giving, stop and pray until trust is doing it instead.
And tithing is not a reason to hide from a hard financial season. If the bills are not being met, get wise help with the budget, talk to your pastor, and bring the whole situation to God. Faith and a spreadsheet are not enemies. There is room for “creating a budget, and sticking to it” right alongside trusting God for provision.
A prayer
Father, everything in my hand came from Yours. Where fear has been telling me to hold on, give me the faith to sow. Show me the amount, and then help me set it aside first instead of last. Teach me to save with wisdom, to give with joy, and to tithe with trust. And let me be satisfied in You before I am satisfied by anything money can buy. In Jesus' name, amen.
If money is the heaviest thing in your life right now, we would count it a privilege to pray with you. The prayer line at Miracle Word Ministries is open. His Word. His Power. Your Miracle.
Common questions
Is tithing in the New Testament? Jesus affirmed it in passing (Matthew 23:23) while putting the weight on justice, mercy, and faith. The New Testament emphasis is cheerful, purposed, proportional giving (2 Corinthians 9:6–7), and the tenth remains the historic starting point.
Do I tithe on gross or net? Scripture does not answer that. Pray about the amount and set it aside first. Start where you are and grow.
Should I tithe if I am in debt? Pray honestly, get help with a budget, and do not let shame make the decision. Saving, giving, and tithing are one practice, not competitors.
Does tithing guarantee I will be blessed financially? No teaching in Scripture promises a specific return on a specific timeline. What Malachi promises is that God is faithful, and that you are invited to find that out for yourself.
Where should the tithe go? Scripture's pattern is the storehouse, meaning the place you are spiritually fed. For most believers that is their local church.
Where this teaching comes from
The teaching on this page is quoted word for word from Marilyn Hickey's book on faith and money, and every quoted passage is checked against the printed pages before publishing.
- In Your Hand, the chapters “What’s in Your Present?”, “What’s in Your Future?”, and “My Prayer for You”
- Available from Miracle Word Ministries.
Keep reading
Source: Marilyn Hickey, In Your Hand, Miracle Word Ministries. The teaching on this page appears in Marilyn Hickey’s own words. © Miracle Word Ministries. Used with permission.