Taxes a Grace Gift
This is the time of the year when people are either groaning the loudest because they didn’t pay enough taxes in or squealing with surprise and excitement cause they got a good chunk of change back. I want to encourage everyone to recognize something about this time of the year, and the refunds some of you may be getting.
Paying taxes can be a grace gift that God has designed for you so that you can receive much needed help when you need it. Getting your refunds is usually very timely for most people. This is the grace of God to you. It was His grace to give the money to you the first time when you were making it last year. It is His grace now that comes to you in the form of a refund at the time when you most need it. Some of you, and I know this from past experience, have received healthy refunds even though you paid very little in last year. I remember several years past when this kind of grace was shown to me.
I have to ask the question though. Where did you get it? I mean….where did this money come from? Do you understand the origin of this money to be from the hand of God, or have you configured your mind to think of it logically and rationally so that you think about money paid in, a certain return due to tax credits, dependants, etc…
I’ll answer the question for you. God gave it to you. Plain and simple.
James 1:17 “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation of shadow of shifting”
Am I making sense now? So the implication is clear. Are you clearly revealing to God that you praise Him as the Giver of this gift, not simply by praising him verbally, but by offering a tenth or more back to Him in worship? If we prize the gift more than the Giver, then we will use every penny to meet our needs and wants. This, my friends, is idolatry, plain and simple. If, we love the Giver more than the gift, we will demonstrate this through the worship of giving Him what He has asked of us, a tenth off the top, before anything else is spent.
Have you, or are you being faithful in this. Are you demonstrating that the Giver is your highest treasure and joy? I pray that you will. I pray that all of us will reject this functional idol and live to the Glory of God.
Leave a Comment