Tithing

When someone regularly, willingly, and cheerfully tithes, it shows great spiritual growth — and it also shows a tremendous amount of trust in God for where their income, health, and everything else comes from. The definition of tithing is the tenth part, and originally it meant to contribute 10% of everything you earn to your church. For most of us, that is quite a leap of faith; but real tithing shows a deep trust in God and his provision for us.

Christian Science teaches that God is the source of all good, and that there is no limit whatsoever to His goodness. This was brought home to me very clearly in an experience I had many years ago. Through some very careless, willful, and egotistical thinking, my business crashed; and for the better part of a year, I lost a tremendous amount of money. Needless to say, this was an extremely humbling experience for me, and I wanted very much to learn whatever lesson I needed to learn. I had a very good practitioner from this church to help me see how pride had caused me to ruin a good business.

During that time we never cut back on our contribution to the church. For a while, we were tithing more than 100% of our income. But I was so grateful to God for the life He had given me, so grateful for Christian Science, that I could not stop giving to the church that I was so grateful for. In about a year, just as our life savings was about to be depleted, the business started making money. Then something really incredible happened — the business boomed, far beyond the expectation that anybody had. Within a year, everything I had lost was regained, and more. It was an incredible experience and demonstrated to me God’s care for us. I will never forget this experience, and I am so grateful for it because it taught me that the hand that is open to give is open to receive. That is a law of God.