Trusting the Lord Through Tithes and Offerings
The law of tithing is a law of faith. As we obey it, we demonstrate our trust in the Lord.
Before I was baptized into the Church, the missionaries taught me about tithes and offerings. After my baptism, through summer jobs, I had the opportunity to pay full tithes and fast offerings. However, at that time, I did not fully understand the meaning of the promises and blessings associated with obedience to this law.
It was not until my missionary service that I had the opportunity to teach this commandment and bear testimony of it. While serving in the Chile Osorno Mission, in the city of Puerto Montt, Elder Ruben Alvarez and I began teaching a woman who was about 70 years old and lived with her son, who was a member of the Church. She could not read and had difficulty retaining what we taught her, so we needed to repeat each lesson twice.
When we began teaching the law of tithing and the promised blessings that come to those who obey it, with great sadness she said to me, “Elder Giuffra, I clean houses and wash clothes for several families. What I earn is barely enough to pay the rent for the room where we live, buy a small amount of firewood to keep us warm, and provide some food. I don’t think I will ever be able to live the law of tithing because I will not have enough money to do so.”
We were deeply moved. Everything she said made sense from a worldly perspective. Although we bore testimony of the great blessings the Lord promises to those who obey this commandment, she insisted that she could not do it.
The next morning, I called my mission president, President Fernando Caballero, to seek his counsel. In my mind, I wondered whether the Lord might have an exception for someone in her circumstances.
President Caballero read to me the account of the widow’s mite and then said, “Elder Giuffra, you are no one to deny this sister the blessings of the law of tithing. There are no exceptions to this commandment.”
Those words became engraved upon my heart. My companion and I decided to pray and fast because two days later we would return to review the commandments once again before her baptism.
When we arrived at her home and began reviewing the lessons, we came once again to the law of tithing. She said to us, “Last night I knelt in prayer and told Heavenly Father that I truly wanted to become a member of His Church and that He would need to help me live this law.”
As we heard those words, a profound feeling of peace and assurance filled our minds and hearts. We knew that the Lord had heard both her prayers and ours.
She was baptized the following Saturday. A few weeks later, I was transferred to another area, but I remained in contact with her bishop. He told me she arrived every week with her tithing envelope and that on the first Sunday of every month she also brought her fast offering.
Throughout my life, I have learned to trust in the Lord, and I have seen innumerable blessings come to my family and me as we have sought to faithfully live the law of tithing and offerings. Some blessings have been temporal, others spiritual, but all have strengthened our testimony that the Lord always fulfills His promises and that the windows of heaven are opened according to our obedience.
My wife often teaches a principle that has become very meaningful in our family: We keep the commandments because we love God, not merely because we hope to receive the blessings that come from obedience. Commandments are given to draw us closer to the Savior, to protect us, and to help us remain free from sin and many of the challenges the world presents.
This does not mean that we will be free from trials or difficulties. All of us will face moments of uncertainty, financial hardship, illness, or loss. Yet even when we do not understand the purpose of our trials, we can have the assurance that the Lord knows our circumstances, honors our obedience, and fulfills His promises in His own time and way.
President Russell M. Nelson taught that “tithing can break cycles of poverty in poor nations and families.
“‘We preach tithing to the poor people of the world because the poor people of the world have had cycles of poverty, generation after generation,’ he said. ‘That same poverty continues from one generation to another, until people pay their tithing.’”
During my years of service in Central America, I have seen men and women prosper both temporally and spiritually. I have met families who once worried about their next meal but who now enjoy greater stability. I have known children of God who once could not afford a pair of shoes and who today, through faith and diligent effort, own successful businesses. I have also witnessed the Lord open doors for employment, provide education, strengthen marriages, and fill faithful hearts with peace and hope.
President Dallin H. Oaks taught: “The payment of tithing … brings the individual tithe payer unique spiritual blessings. Tithe paying is evidence that we accept the law of sacrifice. It also prepares us for the law of consecration and the other higher laws of the celestial kingdom.” These laws are fulfilled as we keep the covenants made in the house of the Lord, which deepens and perpetuates our relationship with Jesus Christ.
“Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. …
“Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.”
I testify that the law of tithing is a law of faith. As we obey it, we demonstrate our trust in the Lord and allow Him to work miracles in our lives, often in ways we do not expect. Christ lives. This is His Church, and President Dallin H. Oaks is His prophet. In the sacred name of Jesus Christ, amen.