Unfortunately, many Christians misunderstand the idea of tithing. They often think of it as giving a tenth from their own property to God. God is so generous to us. That way God won t have to depend on us to pay our tithes. God has chosen for us to personally return the tithe so that we can demonstrate our stewardship of his property.
Stewardship is the faithful and responsible management of something that belongs to someone else.
Tithing is a test of our stewardship over the property of God, a test of our honesty to return to God what is rightfully His, a test of our obedience to do what He told us to do, and a test of our love and desire to please Him with our lives. Tithing is a demonstration that we believe in God, and that we acknowledge that He is the provider of all material blessings. If you haven t the faith to believe that the tithe belongs to the Lord, neither can you have faith in Him to meet your financial needs. After all, if you don t believe that the tenth is His, you must not believe that the whole earth is His either. Without that confidence in His supremacy, there could be no confidence in His ability to provide our needs.