Local Leader Message
Tithing: The Way to Self-Reliance
Through your faith, Jesus Christ will increase your ability to move the mountains in your life, even though your personal challenges may loom as large as Mount Everest.
Self-reliance for me and my family, individually and collectively, is one of the things I pray for quite often. As we are more self-reliant, we will have more peace in this world and prepare better for eternal life in the world to come.1 Since I joined the Church, I have learnt to live by the following related principles:
The Lord commands us to be, and blesses us for being, diligent in all we do, and our actions need to reflect the faith we profess.
In this article, I share more with you on what has helped me to be more self-reliant. I remind us that our Heavenly Father and the Lord Jesus Christ are faithful and true to their promises.
Self-reliance has both spiritual and temporal components, and both are improved as we keep the commandments of God.2 When I think of self-reliance and these two components, the law of tithing often comes to mind, bringing with it the following instructive experience as shared by President Gordon B. Hinckley (1918–2008):
“We hear some these days who say that because of economic pressures they cannot afford to pay their tithing. I recall an experience I had as a stake president some years ago. A man came to get his temple recommend signed. I questioned him in the usual way and asked, among other things, whether he was paying an honest tithing. He candidly replied that he was not, that he could not afford to because of his many debts. I felt impressed to tell him that he would not pay his debts until he paid his tithing.
“He went along for a year or two in his normal way, and then made a decision. He talked about it sometime later, telling me: ‘What you told me has proved to be true. I felt I could not pay my tithing because of my debts. I discovered that no matter how hard I tried, somehow I could not manage to reduce my debt. Finally my wife and I sat down together and talked about it and concluded we would try the promise of the Lord. We have done so. And somehow in a way we can’t quite understand, the Lord has blessed us. We have not missed that which we have given to him, and for the first time in many years we are reducing our debt. We have come to the wisdom of budgeting our expenditures and of determining where our funds have been going. Because we now have a higher objective, we are able to curtail some of our appetites and desires. And above all of this, we feel we can now go to the house of the Lord with those deserving of this wonderful blessing.’
“We can pay our tithing. It is not so much a matter of money as it is a matter of faith. I have yet to find a faithful tithe payer who cannot testify that in a very literal and wonderful way the windows of heaven have been opened and blessings have been poured out upon him or her.”3
The reason this story, together with President Hinckley’s counsel, comes to mind is that they closely mirror my own experience with tithing. I learnt that rendering “to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s”4 in diligence and love of Heavenly Father can really change our so-called fortunes. Once I decided to bring tithes into the storehouse and prove the Lord of hosts,5 the debts that I had struggled to pay for some years were settled in a few months. My self-reliance improved as a result, and it has been getting better and better ever since. All of this was the result of listening to a well-prepared talk given in a normal church meeting I attended and decided to act on the teachings received.
I love the reminder from Elder David A. Bednar that not all blessings from tithing are temporal and financial, when he said: “some of the diverse blessings we obtain as we are obedient to this commandment are significant but subtle. . . .
“Sometimes we may ask God for success, and He gives us physical and mental stamina. We might plead for prosperity, and we receive enlarged perspective and increased patience, or we petition for growth and are blessed with the gift of grace. He may bestow upon us conviction and confidence as we strive to achieve worthy goals. And when we plead for relief from physical, mental, and spiritual difficulties, He may increase our resolve and resilience.”6
As I look back now, I can see how the Lord has changed even my nature as I have striven to be obedient to His commandments.
In the callings I have had in the Church, I have been blessed to interview and teach members about observing and keeping the law of tithing. Seeing how those members who decide to pay a full tithe over time grow spiritually and even become self-reliant has strengthened my testimony. As Elder Bednar promised, “indeed the windows of heaven will be opened and spiritual and temporal blessings will be poured out such that there shall not be room enough to receive them”7 for faithful tithe payers.
As we develop and execute our plans to be self-reliant, we ready ourselves for that blessing and have the Lord our God order all things for our good8 to this end. In the name of Jesus Christ, I testify that one essential way we can achieve this is by being faithful tithe payers. This indeed being a matter of faith, I close with these words from President Russell M. Nelson: “My dear brothers and sisters, my call to you . . . is to start today to increase your faith. Through your faith, Jesus Christ will increase your ability to move the mountains in your life, even though your personal challenges may loom as large as Mount Everest.”9
Elder S. Ephraim Msane was sustained as an Area Seventy in April 2019. He is married to Nomthandazo Salvatoris Mpanza; they are the parents of two children.