The bulk of my blog will feature testimonies from people that I know and I am very proud to post the first one from my friend Jameel! His testimony on tithing is one that I am sure most of us can relate to. I pray his testimony blesses you and even convicts you if you are struggling in this area. Enjoy!
Let me tell you how I know God is real, and how he keeps to his word. I am currently a fairly new business owner in Brookhaven, Ga., and have been working in my salon since May 2015. I have been in the beauty industry for about 4 years, but previously worked for “The Man” (as Tina Turner would say) in a salon.
My whole life my mom has raised me on giving my tithes and offering. When I say tithe I don’t mean whatever I can give. I’m talking about 10% BEFORE taxes. So growing up I always knew before I did anything with any income I got I had to give 10% to the lord and give an offering. Now that I’ve grown up, I have bills and responsibilities and especially now that I’m a business owner not knowing when the next time you get paid is SCARY!
So in May of 2015 I stopped giving God his money. Now at first it wasn’t intentional. I started running my salon it was very hard to keep track of my money and how much money I was making, because instead of getting paid every 2 weeks as I was previously I’m now getting paid everyday (excuse #1). So then it turned into well I’ll just give God his money next week or the week after (excuse #2), and that turned into my next problem. No one ever told me that starting a business was going to require me to dish out as much money as I was going to. Then on top of me having to pay for things such as; shampoo, conditioner, color, cleaning products, repairs and replacements on styling tools, etc., I started not making as much money as I thought I was going to. My extra spending money started going to bills, bills, and more bills (excuse #3).
By this time in my testimony its now January and I have not given God not 1 cent of any of the money from my business, but I was expecting God to grow my business and allow it to prosper. Now on December 27, 2015 I had an unexpected injury that caused me to go to the emergency room. Keep in mind that as a business owner insurance is EXPENSIVE, but I managed to get the least expensive plan I could get and my plan wouldn’t come into effect until January 1, 2016. So yes I said I went to the emergency room 5 days before my insurance started. I received a $2,800 medical bill probably 2 weeks after my visit. At this point I’m thinking God what can you do to get me out of this one.
My mom is my encourager and cheerleader, and randomly she asked me “are you tithing like you’re suppose to be?”. Normally I can hear something my mom says and it goes in one ear and out the other, but this time for some reason I could not get what she said out of my head. I even ran to my group of friends and had to confess to them my tithing story and told them I was scared to give God his portion because ALL of my money was accounted for in bills. But they all told me trust in God. It’s his money in the first place and he is allowing you to have that so you can at least give him 10%.
So that Monday in the middle of January I sat down and prayed to God and said “God if you want me to give to you, I need you to make some financial mountains move. Im scared but I know that you said you would give back 10 fold”. That day I got on my home church’s website and gave my 10% off of the top tithes and gave $2 as an offering with a happy heart expecting God to keep his end of the deal. Maybe about 15 minutes later, I call the hospital to see what payment arrangement I could work out to start making payments towards this $2,800 medical bill. The woman was very nice on the phone and told me to hold please, and she gets back on the phone and says “sir well since this is your first time at our hospital you can just pay $150 now and we will waive the rest of your bill as a courtesy”. I had to ask her was she sure because that didn’t sound like anything I’d ever heard of before.
So I grabbed my wallet immediately and paid the $150 and made sure she gave me a receipt and her full name just incase any bill collector tried getting me for this later on down the line. I then began to praise God and lift him up, because he was like son you will not even have to pay 10% of this medical bill because you obeyed me.
So from now on I CAN’T doubt God with my tithes and offerings anymore. He literally blessed me no more than 15 min after I gave to him. I just really hope if anyone is struggling financially, and you aren’t giving God his 10% please please please do so IMMEDIATELY. God can move mountains and he did for me. I can’t even keep my mouth closed about it. He’ll make a way out of no way!!!! =)
This testimony has not been altered in any way, as these are his words!
