Paying Tithes For The Unemployed, Students And House Wives

Every born again Christian has a gift that can be traded with to realize some income. Paul speaking to his spiritual son Timothy, urged him to stir up the gift deposited in him.

“Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands.” (2 Timothy 1:6)

I wish to do the same here and remind every Christian to look inside and stir up the gifts and the talents God has deposited in them and start trading with the same for their own benefit. These gifts and talents will bring them incomes from which they can pay their tithes. The house wives, students, unemployed and all those who are currently not in gainful employment should realize that they each have dormant gifts and talents that can bring income.

Gifts and talents in us are meant to profit us and the world around us. Your gifts and talents make rooms for you and connect you with higher authorities and powers. These rooms represent opportunities.

“A man's gift maketh room for him, and bringeth him before great men”.(Proverbs 18:16)

Once you discover and exploit your gifts and talents, you will always make an income from which you can pay your tithe from. The more diligent you are with your gifts and talents, the more profitable you become and the more income you get.

“Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men” (Proverbs 22:29)

Any diligent man will find something to do. Diligent people see opportunities in the midst of challenges.

HOUSEWIVES

When a woman gets married she does not in any way stop being a Christian. Nothing stops her from stirring up the gift of God in her. If only such a house wife will open up to the Holy Spirit within, she will realize there are untapped potentials within her lying dormant.

God expects her to bring   this great profitable gifts to work to improve her life, that of her family and of the church. Housewives can use their God given talents to generate money yielding ideas and projects from which they can pay tithes. They also get monthly allowances and monetary gifts from their husbands and friends. These too must be tithed. No house wife is exempted from paying tithes.

In the days of our Lord Jesus Christ, women like Joanna and Susanna and many others followed Him, and ministered unto Him out of their substance. These women were married, yet they still had substance of their own to minister unto the Lord.

“And Joanna the wife of Chuza Herod's steward, and Susanna, and many others, which ministered unto him of their substance.” (Luke 8:3)

Paul got to Europe by the help of Lydia who dedicated herself to the Work of God and used her skills to create resources for the work of God. She was trading with her God given skills.

And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us: whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul.(Acts 16:14)

CHILDREN

Hebrews 7:9-10 settles the question of children paying tithes.  Levi paid tithe even before he was born!
“And as I may so say, Levi also, who receiveth tithes, payed tithes in Abraham. For he was yet in the loins of his father, when Melchisedec met him” (Hebrews 7:9-10)

It is advisable to train children to pay tithes so that when they grow up they will not depart from it. If parents give children in Sunday school offerings to give during their classes, they should not be denied the payment of tithes also. After all, children also receive gifts and other blessings. Children should be taught and encouraged to pay tithes from monetary gifts they receive.

“Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6)

When you train up a child to tithe, you are indirectly teaching that child to be responsible. You are training the child to be productive. The child will be learning that not every coin that comes to his or her hands that must be spent. It is an intelligent way of teaching your children that every fruit in their hands has both food and seeds inside and that they should never eat both the food part and the seeds unless they don’t want to eat the same fruit tomorrow. In real sense, eating a fruit with its seeds can cause stomach upsets. May your children never experience life upsets because of eating all their blessings including their tithes!

In the natural, some fruits even when you eat them together with their seeds the seeds are discharged out of your system intact. Meaning they have not added any nutritional value to your body. That is what eating tithe does; it does not add to your life. It is passed to other people without your intention.

STUDENTS

There are many instances when students are beneficiaries of blessings that can be classified as income. A good example is when a student is also working part time or when a student gets some personal gifts from friends and relatives. What ought not to be tithed is that which does not belong to the student e.g. school fees, examinations fees, tuition fees, educational trip fees etc. However, pocket money should be tithed.

I know that pocket money in most cases is almost insufficient to cater for their needs, but that is the principal reason why they ought to pay tithes faithfully so that the windows of heaven will open for them also.

THE UNEMPLOYED

If you are currently not in a gainful employment, stop calling yourself unemployed. It is amazing to see some young people taking pride in calling themselves unemployed. This blinds them to all other opportunities round about them. They live their life pointing accusing fingers at the government or some relatives.

I want to let this group know that life is about production not employment. Live is about contribution not about status. If you can produce goods and services without being employed by any one, you are on your way to prosperity. Instead of looking so hard for a job, start looking for opportunities to be productive. Look for opportunities to meet the needs around your neighbourhood.

God hated idleness as is clearly demonstrated by these proverbs:

“How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep? Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man” (Proverbs 6:9 -11)

Jesus gave a parable of how the kingdom of heaven creates opportunities to help idle people and set them free from idleness.

“For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard. And when he had agreed with the labourers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And he went out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, And said unto them; Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right I will give you. And they went their way. Again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour, and did likewise. And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle, and saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle? They say unto him, Because no man hath hired us. He saith unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard; and whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive. So when even was come, the lord of the vineyard saith unto his steward, Call the labourers, and give them their hire, beginning from the last unto the first.” (Matthew 20:1 – 9)

The kingdom of heaven is around you with all the opportunities to keep you busy and profitable. God is looking for “idle” people who can meet the obvious needs around you.

A young man by the name David Kuria saw the need for toilets in Nairobi Kenya a few years ago. The man is today a self made millionaire by simply providing branded toilets -IKO TOILET in towns and cities around the country.

I have heard of groups of young unemployed people joining together to start milk production business by buying one cow. Imagine a group of twenty youths owning just one cow to start a milk production business. There are numerous successful stories all around us that proves employment is not the only destination. Look for needs around you and find a way of meeting those needs. Ask God to open your eyes to discover these needs and how they can be met by you.

God keeps coming around to see if any is standing idle, and as many as He sees, He offers them an occupation (call it a job) in form of ideas that are simple and easy to implement. Sometimes, the simplicity of these ideas is what deters people from trying them. We wait for complex ideas which seem to never come and when they do, they are impossible to implement. There is wisdom in simplicity. Wisdom is discovering the law of gravity when you see an apple falling down from a tree. If you wait to discover the law of gravity by observing and making complex calculations on how the earth is sustained around the sun, you may never discover the law of gravity.

Arise and shine (Isaiah 60:1). Start something. Start from where you are. Start with whatever you have. Be creative. Be innovative. You are here to serve your generation. You will make it!

I suggest you put this book down now for a while and look inside yourself and around you. See the strengths in you which may include talent, gifts, education, and skills and then make a prayer. Pray in the spirit for the next 15 minutes, asking God to show you what to do with what you already have. God is ready and willing to help you out. He says,

“Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not. (Jeremiah 33:3)

God is set to show you the way if only you call unto him. He is even ready to show you some opportunities you don’t know about now. God is also set to lead you to profits.

“Thus saith the LORD, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am the LORD thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go. (Isaiah 48:17)

Call on God now. You do not have any reason to be idle any longer. The Holy Spirit in you will surely show you the way to go. He will lead you out of the bondage of idleness and joblessness. It is absolutely your fault if you remain idle and unproductive from this moment on. Whatever you start, just commit it to God and He will establish it.

“Commit thy works unto the LORD, and thy thoughts shall be established.” (Proverbs 16:3)

God is equally ready to bless your venture by blessing the works of your hands.

“The LORD shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow. (Deuteronomy 28:12)

God will not only establish your venture and bless it, but He has a plan to elevate you to the top in your venture. He says;

“And the LORD shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the LORD thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do them” (Deuteronomy 28:13)