Stewardship Question and Answer—Tithing After Job Lost Due to Covid-19
QUESTION: During this difficult time of COVID-19, we lost our jobs and there is no income, so we have nothing to give. Will God understand if we do not give tithes and offerings?
ANSWER: Ellen White in her book Counsels on Stewardship, page 17, wrote: “When the heavenly Benefactor ceases to give to us, then we may be excused; for we shall have nothing to bestow.”
She gave us the assurance, however, that “God has never left us without evidence of His love, in that He did us good. . . . We are sustained every moment by God’s care, and upheld by His power. He spreads our tables with food. He gives us peaceful and refreshing sleep.”—Counsels on Stewardship, p. 17.
Further, she asked us to count our blessings by writing, “Weekly He brings to us the Sabbath, that we may rest from our temporal labors, and worship Him in His own house. He has given us His word to be a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. In its sacred pages we find the counsels of wisdom; and as oft as we lift our hearts to Him in penitence and faith, He grants us the blessings of His grace. Above all else is the infinite gift of God’s dear Son, through whom flow all other blessings for this life and for the life to come. Surely goodness and mercy attend us at every step.”—Ibid.
What a great assurance that God will never cease to give His blessings to us in whatever situation we are in.
In closing, Ellen White wrote the following invitation: “As we are continually receiving the blessings of God, so are we to be continually giving. . . . Not only should we faithfully render to God our tithes, which He claims as His own, but we should bring a tribute to His treasury as an offering of gratitude. Let us with joyful hearts bring to our Creator the first fruits of all His bounties,—our choicest possessions, our best and holiest service.”—Ibid.
