Articles

Money Back – or Ahead?

Money Back – or Ahead?

by Jack McNeilus

As a businessman who believes in the Biblical principles of stewardship, I’ve been used to retuning what I thought was a faithful tithe. Each year, after the accounting is done, I’ve corrected the amount of the tithe that I had contributed and was happy in the thought that I was faithful.

But a sermon by our pastor changed my thinking. In essence, the pastor described a money-back offer: If we had returned our tithe in faith and found that we couldn’t do without that tithe money in our budget, he would see to it that we got it back after a period of time.  That offer really got me thinking.

Was I really living on faith, trusting my needs to God, or was I just returning a dividend on what God had given me? That month I decided to find out.

I decided to return my anticipated next year’s tithe for the whole year in advance and see what God would choose for my income. I added a fourteen percent increase over the previous year’s tithe and put the check in the tithe envelope. In April I changed my business from a sole proprietor to a corporation and started receiving a monthly salary. On this income I returned tithe also.

A year went by: my business gross sales for that year were up fourteen percent, and so was my faith. My warehouse is now full to overflowing.

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This article was published October 19, 2011