God’s Math

Isn’t it the heart that counts with God? “We knew that the biblical tithe is 10 percent, but we thought God would be fine with a few dollars here and there, as we thought suitable.” This is how Violet and Jarrod, like many other Christians, viewed returning tithe to God. After all, God knows how tight our finances are. He’ll surely understand, we may reason. But we’re the ones who need to understand: exact tithing helps grow our faith, and God’s math works differently from ours!

For the first four years of their marriage, Violet and Jarrod, a young couple from North Carolina, didn’t follow the Bible’s teaching on tithe very closely. But they did use their money carefully. They followed a budget, contributing monthly to a savings account and vacation fund, and they tried to gradually pay down their debt. They