Why giving away 10% of your income will make you richer

Tithing is not a new concept. Nearly every religion in the world practices it. Yet it can be a controversial subject for some people. It can feel as though some preacher or religious organization just wants your money. Even if that is true, give it anyway if you receive spiritual inspiration from them. You’re tithing for yourself, not someone else. Tithing is a personal commitment to your spiritual growth.

To understand tithing, you need to know exactly what tithing is. An excellent definition for tithing comes from prosperity master and Unity Minister Edwene Gaines: Tithing is “giving 10% of all money you receive, without attachment, to the person, place or institution where you receive spiritual food or inspiration.” Notice the definition does not say, “give 10% to a church.” It says, “to the person, place or institution where you receive spiritual food or inspiration.” If you receive your spiritual food from your church, then by all means tithe there. However, there may be people you encounter during your week who also give you spiritual food. You should tithe to them as well.

Some argue that they give to charity and that is their way of tithing. Giving to charity is wonderful but it is not tithing. When you give to a charity you are giving with attachment. You are, in essence, directing how you want the money to be spent. Tithing is giving the money freely, letting the recipient decide what, when, where and how the money will be used. Give to charity, but tithe, too.

Tithing serves another purpose. It is your way of acknowledging that the true source of wealth is not a job, or a trust fund, or a stock portfolio. Those are channels for wealth. True prosperity comes from spiritual inspiration, from a higher source, whether you call that source “God,” “Infinite Spirit,” “the Universe,” “the Divine Matrix,” or “the Zero Point Field.” By giving back 10% of all the money you receive, you set up the flow for more money to come back to you. Which is why, no matter how little or how much money or income you have, giving away 10% of that income will end up making you richer.

When you tithe, you are also demonstrating another spiritual concept: An “Attitude of Gratitude.” You are telling your higher source that you are grateful for what you have, and you are ready and willing to receive more. If you can’t part with 10% of what you have now, why would you be given more?

Perhaps one of the most interesting arguments for tithing comes from the Bible. In Malachi, Chapter 3, Verse 10 of the Old Testament in the King James Version, it says, "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."

If “the windows of heaven” have not opened for you, you may want to start tithing. You may also want to note that it is the only time in the Bible in which you are given the opportunity to prove God. Why would you want to pass up an opportunity like that?