Malachi 3:6-7 “I the LORD do not change. So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. Ever since the time of your forefathers you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the LORD Almighty.
“But you ask, `How are we to return?'”

There’s some important stuff here. Malachi 3 is generally used for the verses that follow this, that talk about tithing, and those are important, but we need these verses as a foundation for that passage. The first line here, where God reminds us that He doesn’t change, is especially important today, when revisionists are trying to change all sorts of foundational documents. Our understanding of God changes, and quite rightly so, because we can’t possibly know everything about Him, and we should continually be learning more. However, God Himself doesn’t change. Once again I’m back to my father’s pet phrase: “Give all you know of yourself to all you know of Christ.” Our understanding of ourselves and our understanding of God in Christ should continue to grow throughout our lives, until, as Paul said, “Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” (1 Corinthians 13:12) The assurance that God doesn’t change should be a bedrock for our faith, because when we abide in the unchangeable, we will not be destroyed. However, God has a problem with us: we don’t keep His rules. I keep coming back to the point that His rules aren’t to be mean to us, but to protect us from harm, and as John pointed out, they aren’t a burden when they are properly understood. (1 John 5:3-5) Not keeping His rules makes us wander away from Him, but God assures us here that if we will come back to Him, He will come back to us. It is when people questioned how to do that, that God explained about the tithe. We wander from God out of childish selfishness, and nothing brings that out like money. That’s probably the biggest single reason for the tithe, to teach us to trust God with our finances, since He’s the one who created it all in the first place.

I was raised with tithing as a practically unquestioned principle of life, and I really haven’t had much trouble with that, because I have always had the assurance that God loves me. However, I have asked how I was to draw close to God, and right now He’s telling me very strongly to seek Him. I think the answer is in not being careless with what I know He has said to me. This passage focuses on tithing, but I have taken other things lightly, and doing that with anything pertaining to God causes unnecessary distance between Him and me, and I don’t want that. I need to let the Holy Spirit remind me of what He has told me to do and not do, and be faithful to follow through. The devil is a liar, and he tries to convince me that such faithfulness will cause me to “miss out,” somehow, on pleasures of the flesh or whatever. I’m to submit to God and resist the devil! (James 4:7)

Father, thank You for Your amazing faithfulness. Thank You for never giving up on us. Help me not only walk in Your grace myself, but extend that grace to others so that they too may walk in it, and You may have a healthy, growing family of children who know You, love You, and obey You, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!