God Shares What He Has with Us

“And Abraham apportioned to Melchizedek a tenth of everything. His name means righteous king of peace.” Hebrews 7:2

A man named Bob bought a cup of coffee and a bag of mini pretzels. After laying his jacket on the seat next to him, he settled to wait for his plane in front of an older man reading a newspaper across the table. Bob drank his coffee, got a pretzel, and worked on his laptop. Then with amazement, Bob noticed the older man get a pretzel from the bag, and smile at him. Bob got another pretzel and moved the bag nearer to him. A little while later, the older man got a pretzel, and returned the bag where it was beside Bob’s laptop. Bob was getting more and more agitated when the man got up, opened the bag, took the last pretzel, divided it, then left half a pretzel in the bag. All the while, the older man had a smile on his face. 

Eventually Bob’s flight was called, and he got up. Collecting his jacket from the seat next to him, he was dismayed to see his bag of untouched pretzels. It had fallen to the floor! We can imagine Bob’s chagrin! The older man was not taking Bob’s pretzels, he was sharing his own with Bob! 

Like that older man, God shares what He has with us. In the Bible, there are mentions of how we should give a tenth or more of our money, our time, our resources to God. In Genesis 14:18-20, we read how Abraham gave Melchizedek, a mysterious King of peace, a tenth of all the goods and possessions he and his trained men had won from the invading army. Sometimes we are reluctant to do the same, not realizing that all the pretzels in the world are God’s. 

All that we have, our money, our home, our work is all God's. Our time, our gifts and talents, our energy is all His. So when we give, we are merely returning what is His. Still, it appears God is very careful with what we give Him, that NOTHING will go to waste. When I give Him my time in prayer, or serving in some way, I can be sure that He will multiply what time I have left and I am able to accomplish more than if I did not dedicate some time to Him in the morning. When I give Him my gifts, I have seen how He has made it bloom and grow. With money, when I give tithes, I have tested Him as He said in 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 there will not be room enough to store it."

Lord, help me to always give thanks for everything I have. Give me the gift of generosity that nothing You have given me will go to waste!